Wild strawberry
Fragaria vesca
Family · Rosaceae · Harmless
The fingernail-sized strawberry that grows on the edges of damp northern woods, tasting more of strawberry than any supermarket one. Finding a patch is one of the best things a June trail gives.
Oak woods · Uplands · Streams and ditches · Roadsides and waste ground
Also known aswoodland strawberry, alpine strawberry
How to tell it
Three toothed, bright green leaflets with marked veins, on a hairy stalk. White five-petalled flowers with a yellow centre. It spreads by runners, those threads that run along the ground and root. A small red fruit that comes away easily.
What it is confused with
Creeping cinquefoil
Potentilla reptans
Same family, both creeping by runners. Count the leaflets: five on cinquefoil, three on wild strawberry. And cinquefoil has a yellow flower and never bears red fruit.
Open sheet →What it is for
The fruit is eaten raw, and is the only reason anyone kneels down on a trail. The leaves were a traditional infusion. Pick little and leave the rest: a patch takes years to form.
Traditionally used as food. This is not permission to eat it.
With documented traditional uses. Not a therapeutic indication and not a dose.