E-Flora BC: Electronic Atlas of the Flora of British Columbia

Fragaria vesca subsp. americana L. Porter
wood strawberry
Rosaceae (Rose family)

Introduction to Vascular Plants

© Frank Skelton  Email the photographer   (Photo ID #387)

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Distribution of Fragaria vesca subsp. americana
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Species Information

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General:
Perennial herb from a fibrous root and short, thick rhizome, with long, leafless runners; stems trailing, rooting at the nodes; runners, leaf stalks and flower shoots greenish or very lightly tinged with reddish purple, lightly to densely hairy.
Leaves:
Basal in rosettes, palmately compound, on stalks 3-12 cm long; leaflets 3, elliptic to egg-shaped, more or less unstalked, 1-3 cm long, the lower surface pale and fine-hairy underneath, the upper surface yellow-green and nearly smooth, the margins strongly toothed with the terminal tooth projecting beyond the adjacent lateral ones.
Flowers:
Inflorescence an open cluster of 3 to 15 stalked flowers atop axillary, leafless, shoots that are usually longer than the leaves at maturity; corollas white, the petals 5, egg-shaped, 5-10 mm long; calyces silky-hairy, 5-lobed, the lobes (sepals) 4-5 mm long, alternating with narrowly elliptic bractlets about as long as the sepals; ovaries superior; stamens about 20.
Fruits:
Strawberries, hemispheric, about 1 cm wide, covered with achenes; achenes 1.3 mm long, partly sunken in the fleshy receptacle.
Notes:
Two varieties with overlapping ranges occur in BC:

1. Flowers to 1.5 cm across; achenes not sunken; leaf-stalks with appressed-ascending hairs; flower-shoots rarely with a leafy bract below inflorescence..................... var. americana Porter

1. Flowers to 2 cm across; achenes in shallow pits; leaf-stalks with spreading or reflexed hairs; flower-shoots commonly with a leafy bract below inflorescence..................... var. bracteata (Heller) R.J. Davis

Source: The Illustrated Flora of British Columbia

Habitat / Range

Dry to moist open forests, sandy fields, clearings and meadows in the lowland to subalpine zones; common in S BC south of 53degreeN, rare northward; N to NT, E to NF and S to CA, NM, MO and VA.

Source: The Illustrated Flora of British Columbia

Synonyms and Alternate Names

Fragaria americana (Porter) Britton
Fragaria americana var. americana
Fragaria vesca var. americana Porter

Taxonomic and Nomenclatural Links

Additional Photo Sources

General References