Wild strawberry
Fragaria virginiana
Also called Woodland strawberry
We do not have a Blackfoot or Cree name for this one yet. Tell us the name and we will add it, with your word on where it comes from.
Small wild strawberries, far better than anything in a shop, in open woods and grassy clearings through early summer. The leaf makes a good mild tea.
Commonly shared knowledge. Learn it, gather it, and follow the protocol.
Take care
- Do not use half-wilted leaves. Fresh or bone dry.
What it is confused with
Easily confusedBarren strawberry and cinquefoils
Yellow flowers and no red fruit. If there is a real red strawberry on it, it is a strawberry.
How to know it
- Leaves
- Three toothed leaflets on a hairy stalk from the base of the plant.
- Runners
- Spreads by red runners across the ground.
- Flowers
- Five white petals with a yellow centre.
- Fruit
- A small red strawberry, seeds sitting on the surface.
The country it grows in
- Aspen parkland
- Open prairie
- Foothills and shrubland
- Mountain forest
Landscape types only. We do not publish where a patch is, and we are not going to.
When it is ready
- Berries June to July
- Leaves May to AugustUse them fresh or fully dried. Half-wilted strawberry leaf is the one state to avoid.
Right now it is July. Something on this plant is in season.
What it is used for
- Food and drink
- Stomach and digestion
- Teaching with youth
Fruit eaten fresh and dried; leaf dried for a mild tea.
How it is prepared
- Food
Eaten as they are, which is what happens to most of them.
- Tea
Fully dried leaf steeped in hot water.
Use fresh or completely dry. Wilting leaves of this family can develop compounds you do not want.
Protocol
Ask the plant first, and offer something before you take anything. Tobacco is what is most often offered here. Say who you are, and say what the medicine is for.
Harvest the mature plants and leave the small ones to grow. Never take the first plant you find, and never take all of them.
Take only what you will actually use. Medicine picked and then left to rot in a bag was taken for nothing.
Leave the ground as you found it. Put back any dirt you dug up, and return any plant material you do not use to the earth.
Do not gather beside roads, highways or trails, where the plants take up whatever has been sprayed or spilled there.
If you are not certain what a plant is, do not pick it and do not put it in your mouth. Ask someone. Being wrong in the field is how people get hurt.