Fragaria vesca Wild Strawberry

A low, creeping, wntergreen perennial which has toothed, trifoliate leaves, stolons and white flowers with no gaps between the 5 unnotched petals. It resembles a small garden strawberry and produces small, sweet, edible strawberry fruits in summer. The leaves have prominent, deeply-etched veins which are pale beneath with appressed hairs. It can be confused with Barren Strawberry (Potentilla sterilis) whose flowers have gaps between the petals and leaves with spreadings hairs beneath. It is a very common plant which grows on hedgebanks, at the edges of woodland, roadside verges and also as a weed in gardens, on walls, along railways and in other open, urban habitats. It is a very common plant found throughout Britain and Ireland and it is common in West Glamorgan, particularly in hedgerows, verges and along forest roads. In their seminal work Birds and Berries, Barbera and David Snow (Snow and Snow, 1988) comment that Wild Strawberry fruits, even when abundant, provide a sparse supply of food for frugiverous birds but may be a more important food source for small mammals and slugs. Wild Strawberry is the food plant for the Grizzled Skipper (Pyrgus malvae) and the Strawberry Tortrix Moth (Acleris comariana).

Native