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Kendall County (IL) Forest Preserve District Wild Strawberry (Virginia Strawberry) The native Wild Strawberry is common in our area. It prefers full or partial sun and slightly moist fertile soil. Habitats include black soil prairies, openings in wooded areas, woodland borders and areas along railroads. This perennial is 4-7" tall, consisting of several trifoliate basal leaves and one or more flowering stalks. The leaflets are up to 2½" long and 1½" across, oval-shaped and coarsely toothed. One or more clusters of 4-6 flowers are produced from stalks up to 5" long. Each flower is ½–¾" across when fully open with 5 white petals, 5 green sepals, and 5 green sepal-like bracts. The flowers are later replaced by globoid fruits up to ½" across becoming bright red at maturity with small seeds scattered across the fruit surface.
Wild Strawberry at Hoover Forest Preserve May 14, 2015
Wild Strawberry at Lyon Forest Preserve May 9, 2015
Wild Strawberry leaf at Lyon Forest Preserve May 9, 2015
Wild Strawberry at Farnsworth House May 13, 2017
The native Wild Strawberry resembles the non-native Indian Strawberry except its flowers are white rather than yellow. Native Americans gathered the fruits of Wild Strawberry to preserve as well as to eat fresh and some cultivated these plants. Some used the leaves to make a tea and some used the roots to make treatments for dysentery, jaundice, scurvy and for diseases of the bladder and kidneys. Reminder: see our Do Not Disturb Notice. Click here for more information. Copyright © 2011-2017 by Kendall County Forest Preserve District. All Rights Reserved. |
