Wild Strawberry Season 🍓

In Upstate New York, you can find ripe wild strawberries (Fragaria virginiana) from early June through early July. While the plants flower in May, the tiny, intensely sweet berries ripen just as the late spring transitions into summer.

Wild strawberries grow low to the ground and need plenty of sunlight to bear fruit. You will find them most commonly in well-drained, open areas rather than dense, dark woods.

Keep an eye out in:

• Meadow and pasture edges
• Sunny trailside openings and forest clearings
• Old fields and powerline cuts
• Roadside ditches and gravelly banks

Identification

• The Leaves: The plant has distinctive green leaves divided into three saw-toothed leaflets.
• The Growth: They spread across the ground via runners.
• Be Fast: Because they grow on the ground, birds, mice, and other local wildlife love them and will often eat them as soon as they turn red. You may find hundreds of green ones for every ripe red berry.
• Be aware of a common look-alike called Mock Strawberry (Potentilla indica). While true wild strawberries have white flowers and dangling, intensely flavorful fruit, mock strawberries have yellow flowers and upright, bumpy red berries that taste completely dry and flavorless. They aren’t poisonous, but they are a disappointment if you bite into one .