General: Perennial herb from a fibrous root and short rhizome usually from a single crown, with several leafless runners; stems trailing, rooting at the nodes; runners, leaf stalks and flower shoots with long spreading to appressed hairs and usually greenish not reddish-tinged.
Leaves: Basal in rosettes, palmately compound, on stalks 2-15 cm long; leaflets 3, egg-shaped, short-stalked, 2-7 cm long, the lower surface smooth to silky-hairy, the upper surface smooth and glaucous bluish-green, the margins coarsely toothed, the terminal tooth less than 1/2 as wide as and shorter than the adjacent teeth.
Flowers: Inflorescence an open cluster of 2 to 15 stalked flowers atop axillary, leafless shoots that are usually shorter than the surrounding leaves at maturity; corollas white, the petals 5, egg-shaped to round, 4-9 (12) mm long; calyces long-silky-hairy, 5-lobed, the lobes (sepals) lance-elliptic, 3-7 mm long, alternating with lanceolate bractlets that are shorter than the sepals; ovaries superior; stamens about 20.
Fruits: Strawberries, hemispheric, about 1 cm wide, covered with achenes; achenes about 1.5 mm long, partly sunken in the fleshy receptacle.
Notes: Two varieties with overlapping ranges occur in BC:
1. Leaf-stalks and flower-shoots with appressed hairs; petals mostly 4-10 mm long, narrowly egg-shaped....................... var. glauca S. Wats.
1. Leaf-stalks and flower-shoots with spreading hairs; petals mostly 8-12 mm long, nearly circular....................... var. platypetala (Rydb.) Hall
1. Leaves thin, not strongly veined beneath, not wrinkled above; plants generally distributed
2. Terminal tooth of leaflets usually surpassing the adjacent lateral ones; leaflets generally unstalked; fruiting shoots longer than the leaves................F. vesca
2. Terminal tooth of leaflets usually much narrower and shorter than adjacent lateral ones; leaflets short-stalked; fruiting shoots shorter than the leaves..............F. virginiana
Source: Illustrated Flora of British Columbia
Habitat / Range
Moist to dry fields, roadsides, meadows, grassy slopes, thickets, forest edges and open forests in the lowland to subalpine zones; common throughout BC; N to AK and NT, E to NF and S to CA, CO, TN and GA.
The table below shows the species-specific information calculated from original data (BEC database) provided by the BC Ministry of Forests and Range. (Updated August, 2013)
A shade-intolerant. submontane to subalpine. circumpolar forb (transcontinental in North America). Occurs on nitrogen-medium soils within boreal,. temperate, cool semiarid, and cool mesothermal climates. Its occurrence increases with increasing continentality, and decreases with increasing elevation. Frequently inhabits exposed, calcium-rich. mineral soil waterÂshedding sites. Common in non-forested (grassy) communities, less frequent in openÂcanopy forests. Characteristic of young-seral forests
