Plant · P-458

Beach Strawberry

Fragaria chiloensis

Beach strawberry is a low, evergreen, mat-forming strawberry native to Pacific coast dunes and bluffs from Alaska south through California to Chile, and one of the two wild parents of the cultivated garden strawberry. Its stolons root at every node, knitting a dense sand-binding mat under about ten inches tall that closes bare ground fast and needs no mowing. The berries are large, sweet and eaten fresh or cooked into jam and preserves, though both male and female plants are needed to get any fruit at all. It is a cool, fog-cooled coastal plant that wants afternoon shade and steady moisture wherever summers run long and hot.