Jan–MarApr–JunJul–SepOct–Dec
Planting
Days to maturity
Seasonal yields
Sow indoors · Direct sow · Transplant outdoors
← Explore Plants
Plant · P-459
Woodland Strawberry
Fragaria vesca
Woodland strawberry is a low, shade-tolerant perennial groundcover native across the northern hemisphere including most of the United States and Canada, and the wild parent behind alpine strawberry cultivars. Its berries are small but intensely aromatic and sweet, eaten fresh or dried, and the leaves brew into an excellent tea. It is the strawberry to plant under a closing canopy - it fruits best with some sun but keeps growing in part shade or shade where its garden-strawberry relatives would fail. It spreads only by surface runners that root at each node into a loose mat, and the extra plantlets lift straight off as free propagation stock.
Record at a glance
Growing profile
- Sun
- Full Sun · Partial Sun · Shade
- USDA zone
- USDA 5–9
- Soil
- Sand · Loam · Clay
- Moisture
- Well-Drained · Moderate · Moist
Vertical layer
Groundcover- Soil pH
- 5.5–7.5
- Plant type
- Perennial
- Mature height
- 3–9 in
- Mature spread
- 9–12 in
- Plant spacing
- 9–12 in
- Root type
- Stolon
- Spread pattern
- Root
Keep exploring
Similar plants
Discover more plants with shared forest layers or growing conditions.
Bambara Groundnut
Vigna subterranea
Bambara groundnut is the drought crop of this group, producing a food-grade seed on ground too poor and too dry for peanut or soybean - it is…
Groundcover · USDA 8–11
Barren Strawberry
Waldsteinia fragarioides
Barren Strawberry is a low woodland groundcover with strawberry-like leaves and yellow spring flowers, but despite the name and the leaf…
Groundcover · USDA 4–7
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…
Groundcover · USDA 4–10
Bilberry
Vaccinium myrtillus
Bilberry is a low, suckering shrub of acid heaths and cool mountain woodland, spreading by rhizome into a knee-high mat. Its small dark…
Groundcover · USDA 3–7
Black Medick
Medicago lupulina
Black Medick is a low, sprawling nitrogen-fixing clover relative that forms a mowable mat through fall, winter and spring before dying back…
Groundcover · USDA 3–9
Brahmi
Bacopa monnieri
Brahmi is a low, fast-spreading creeping perennial of wet ground and shallow water across warm temperate and tropical regions worldwide,…
Groundcover · USDA 8–11
The deeper layer
Plan what comes next.
- Primary
- Locked ecological function
- Secondary
- Locked ecological function
- Byproduct
- Locked ecological function
Behind the record
- Locked research reference
- Locked research reference
- Locked research reference