Plant of the Month

There is also a plant they call “Mock Strawberry”. Not that anything should be called “mock”, or false, in nature, since all plants are perfect and here for a reason. When it’s blooming time, it’s very easy to tell this look-alike from the other two varieties. Wild Strawberry flowers are white with five petals around a lot of bright yellow stamens in the middle. The “Mock” kind has yellow flowers, growing upright on short stalks, instead of the clusters on longer stems of the “True” Wild Strawberry plants. Of course, they are all beautiful to look at, and Mother Nature is truly the most amazing designer on Earth.

Wild Strawberries pack a punch when it comes to the taste! Some say that the taste of a big garden strawberry is concentrated into the much smaller berry growing wild. Sweet. Tangy. Delicious! This is another way to tell wild berry-wonders from the fruit of the “false” strawberry, because those are totally tasteless and a mushy white inside, even though they’re still bright red and pretty on the outside. The Wild Strawberries also smell like perfume! A scent for your nose! Beauty for your sight. Delicious to taste!  This plant makes three of your senses very happy!

How do these plants spread in the wild? First – little seeds sit in dimples on the surface, instead of inside, like with most berries. Birds help by scattering these through their poop. Second – the plants send out little runners called, stolons, along the surface of the ground which then put down roots to grow more plants. Third – Wild Strawberries have a tuber-like roots growing horizontally below ground from which new little shoots turn up here and there. And, if this wasn’t all – the entire plant is edible and, like many plants in the wild, can be used as medicine, too. Let’s hear it for the early berry special – Wild Strawberry!