As a gardening enthusiast, you may often encounter various plants that mimic the appearance of your beloved crops. Among these, some weeds can cleverly disguise themselves to look quite similar to strawberry plants.
It’s important to identify these impostors early, as they can compete for resources and space, ultimately affecting the health and yield of your garden.
This article highlights common weeds that resemble strawberries, their physical characteristics, origins, and the best eradication methods.
1. Mock Strawberry (Duchesnea indica)
- Local Name: False strawberry or Indian strawberry
- Family: Rosaceae
- Annual or Perennial: Perennial
Mock strawberry has trifoliate leaves like a real strawberry plant, but its leaves are more rounded. The flowers are yellow, unlike the white or slightly pink flowers of true strawberries.
The fruit is small and red, resembling a strawberry, but is hard and bland.
It is native to:
- Eastern and Southern Asia
Removal Methods
- Mechanical control: Hand-pulling is effective for small infestations, especially after rainfall when the soil is loose.
- Cultural control: Mulching, improving surface drainage, and maintaining a dense and healthy turf can help suppress the growth.
- Chemical control: Spot treat the weeds with postemergence herbicides like triclopyr, 2,4-D, MCPP, or dicamba.
2. Wild Strawberry (Fragaria vesca)
- Local Name: Woodland strawberry, Wood strawberry, European strawberry, and Alpine strawberry
- Family: Rosaceae
- Annual or Perennial: Perennial
Wild strawberry is a perennial weed 15-30 cm tall that can often be found in woodlands, fields, and along the edges of forests.
It has similar leaves (green, hairy on the underside, and serrated edges) and white flowers to cultivated strawberries. However, the fruits are smaller, softer, and usually more flavorful, making them less of a nuisance and more of a wild treat.
It is native to:
- Europe
- Asia
Removal Methods
Due to its general location (outside cultivated fields) and low invasive nature, there are no well-documented control methods. However, if removal is desired, manual removal or hoeing is effective.
3. Scarlet Strawberry (Fragaria virginiana)
- Local Name: Wild strawberry
- Family: Rosaceae
- Annual or Perennial: Perennial
Scarlett strawberry is a wild herb that grows only about 5 inches. It has coarsely toothed leaves on slender hairy stems and small globe-shaped strawberries with tiny seeds attached to the shallow pits of the drupe surface.
It is one of the native plants used to create the variety of strawberries as we know them today.
It is native to:
- North America
Removal Methods
Hand pulling or mulching can prevent the further spread of the weed to unwanted areas.
Lead Editor for Insight Weeds.