👉👉👉👉 Join Backyard Ecology Patreon here: www.patreon.com/backyardecology 👈👈👈👈 🌸🦋🌸🦋 Learn about another great native ground cover, the violets in this video: ua-cam.com/video/3_NmVDrAdUU/v-deo.html 🌸🦋🌸🦋🦋🦋 Video Note: The scientific name on the range map for woodland strawberry was inadvertently written as Fragaria virginiana. It should be Fragaria vesca. The name is correct elsewhere in the video. Sorry for any confusion!
Bro I need your help, please make a similar native VS invasive video for Thistle, I just ordered some native thistle seeds , but we let invasive thistle grow in our yard our first year cuz birds and bees liked it , but 3 years later we still have sprouts coming up and we don't want to kill natives !!!!
As a kid my parent's yard was covered in Virginia strawberries. I discovered that if I set the mower deck high and mowed before the plants flowered, they would flower and fruit low in the grass, below the cutting blades. I would get sweet treats for months as a reward for mowing.
My grandmother would send us kids out into the field to pick these so that she could make pie. I remember going inside crying because of the black fly swarms. My grandmother took no pity she said pick faster. 😂
I used to eat the fake strawberry like crazy as a kid lmao. I loved them despite them not having much flavor unless you ate a handful at once and then they would finally have some taste but one at a time they don't.
Well, I have mock strawberries in my yard, and while they don’t have the taste of a true strawberry, if you pick a small handful, they do taste like a strawberry, very subdued!
If they get plenty of water they may have some small amount of flavor but if it an area is moist enough for a mock strawberry to have a little taste, it is moist enough to plant some native strawberries.
Speak for yourself-I’ve tasted them, and they’re bland as dust to me. Not to mention that they spread worse than anything and have no respect for my flower garden space!
I remember my grandmother had a particular hiking trail she liked to take near her home where we could reliably find wild woodland strawberries to forage for and have as a treat after lunch. Such a sweet little secret she found among the Rockies.
We have these "mock strawberries" growing wild scattered all over our front and back yards. At first, I didn't know what they were or that they're safe to eat until my husband picked one and ate it. Now, they are one of the reasons I look forward to spring. If the weather is favourable, we can get a pretty good sized harvest. You're right, they don't have much flavour on their own, so I typically stir them into the batter for pancakes or put them in cereal. 😋 We also have some of those "native violets" (I've been calling them "violas"--oops) growing wild in our front yard. We have way more of them this spring than we've ever had before and I'm super excited about it... even more so now that I know they're helpful to bees and butterflies and not just that "they look so pretty."
My theory is that there is a finite amount of flavor available for each berry. You get it in a concentrated form in the smaller wild berries, or diluted in the bigger, more watery commercial ones. It takes more time and patience to pick the wild ones, but it's well worth the effort.
Here in Montana we have something similar to the Mock Strawberry, namely Potentilla uniflora. It is a very aggressive ground cover, and particularly useful on high pH clay soils where strawberries typically show strong iron-deficiency symptoms. In contrast to strawberry's yellow-green foliage, the leaves of Potentilla uniflora remain dark green on these alkaline soils and these plants effectively suppress other weeds. The bright red fruit, unfortunately, is completely without merit unless you are an American Robin, a Ringnecked Pheasant or a Hungarian Partridge. So if you are willing to share some of your produce with the birds, and want an aggressive groundcover under fruit trees ..., then you may want to try sharing parts of your garden with Potentilla uniflora.
We used to call mock strawberries "Indian strawberries." This video helped me figure out why. The mock strawberries we had around here were not bitter or anything. They were pretty bland, mostly, but sometimes there was a bit of sweetness. It was thought that they were poisonous because they had 3 leaves! I thought it was fun to forage, so I would often eat them for the novelty.
@@alexandroquintero1964 Yeah, we were always taught "Leaves of 3, let it be." That way you definitely wouldn't eat poison ivy or something. I think I read a book about these or something, because I somehow knew they were fine to eat.
I love how the violets made their way into my strawberry beds. Those invasive mock strawberries that made their way into my yard are indeed dry, mealy, and tasteless.
My parents built a house on a lake in NC before I was born, and we had wild strawberries and violets. My parents didn’t let me eat the wild strawberries because they didn’t want me to be eating wild berries and poisoning myself. Our area had a lot of poke, and those poisonous berries do look juicy and delicious. We moved before I was old enough to be trusted to only eat the strawberries. My husband and I moved to Chicago for a while, and I found some tiny strawberries at a farmers market. They were a variety that was supposed to be very close to wild strawberries. The smell was amazing. I bought a flat thinking I’d make some jam (I’m allergic to apples and oranges so I can’t eat pectin and commercial jam). The strawberries were everything you could possibly want in a strawberry so my husband and I just ate them with heavy cream. No sugar needed. We moved back to NC for my husband’s job, and those small varieties don’t do well here. Reál brand strawberry syrup uses a small strawberry from California and is really good. Very fragrant. The syrups are used for cocktails, but I use it for lemonade.
Thank you very much. Clear concise and on point. And factual about native and invasive handling. You don't find that hardly ever. Most people don't know what the heck they're talking about or even why. Show a big shout out and thank you
@@Drosenv I don't hate anything, but I am being silly about the flavor of the mock berries. I don;t want to eat them, and I don't want to eat gravel, and I certainly don't want to blend them! Sorry for the confusion.
Thanks for the very informative video. Our old place in southern VT had many strawberry plants and I have eaten only a few. The birds and animals always got them first. They are delicious and incredibly small. Compared to farm raised Berry's. Thanks again.
While the mock strawberries have little taste they do have a nice texture, some nutritional value (good source of vitamin C and dietary fiber, w/traces of iron/VitA/etc), and the flowers/leaves have medicinal properties. You can mock them all you want; They still share this land with all of us.
They are edible, but I wouldn't consider them something I'd want to eat unless I had to. And while they do have some medicinal uses I would rather have native species growing where the mock strawberries are crowding them out.
@@BackyardEcology It's not its fault it's here...no more invasive than you and I. Technically many plants have naturalized here that foragers use regularly. From plantains to dandelion to garlic mustard. I find one of the best ways to reduce non-native species is to eat them, or drink them:)
It's interesting to me the kinds of things people will or won't tolerate in their yards. What's considered ornamental, beneficial, invasive, etc. I have a friend who lives down the street who takes such care of his lawn, you won't find a single weed in it ever. He thinks it's funny when I excitedly talk about some interesting little plant that just randomly started growing in our yard (because we don't do anything more than mow).
I don't think I could get rid of all our mock strawberries if I tried. It's like I'd have to spray the whole front and back yard with Roundup. And I really don't want to do that, for fear of what else might get hurt/killed. Plus, I like them anyway.
When I was a kid we called the mock strawberries "Waterberries" because they just taste like water. I have lots of both real & mock berries in my yard. Thanks for teaching me how to tell them apart before they flower.
Amazing how I basically never ever see vids like this in my feed and today I was telling my gf how I found these odd looking strawberries in the yard and magically this video arrives within 24 hours. I love being stalked
After I moved here I found so many strawberry plants in my backyard and was so excited! Turns out they're Mock Strawberries! The green leaves can be used as an edible pot herb or dried to make a wonderful tea. The berries were often used in pioneer days to fill in if there weren't enough real strawberries for jam. The plant has a ton of medicinal value. They also make a great ground cover. When they start to take over just rip them out and eat. They're drought resistant and do well in full sun or shade.
The thing is, mock strawberries offer next to nothing for our native pollinators and most wildlife don't touch them. There are hundreds of native plants that are great for our pollinators and wildlife many of which are also edible and can be made into tea. I would much rather have those and remove mock strawberries.
When we bought our home it was fall but by the next summer we noticed a nice patch of strawberry just one step from our back porch been picking them since
You learn something new every day, I suppose! I've been eating the mock strawberries for years- never had any problem with the taste, because I find the texture of the seeds pleasant. Guess I'll have to be more discerning from now on! Thank you for teaching me!
Well I'll be double dipped. I am old yard guy and you just taught me a new trick! Yes, I have fake strawberries. Well I never! I'd cheat and upvote this one 6 times if I knew how Mr. Ecology! Woof! Good one!
My mom always hated wild violets, but I've always loved them. The flowers are so pretty when they're in bloom, and when they aren't, their foliage is a deep glossy green even when it hasn't rained in a month. Never quite understood why people call them weeds.
I make violet jelly looks and taste like pink lemonade and violets and their early leaves can be added on a salad or decorate a cake with the violet flowers
i love the way you present the side by side of how to tell things apart. I've lived my life around plants and my dad was a botanist, but I don't always remember the specifics of identifying very similar plants. you make it easy to remember!
I love these little plants, I often times with my maintenance contracts will, along with some of the violas, weed out the other weedier plants and leave them to grow into a volunteer ground cover. Speaking of groundcovers, I would love to hear about more of them.
I love wild violets. I eat them every spring and my dog even loves them. Throw some in your salad for color and appeal. Both the leaves and flowers are edible and packed with vitamin C and vitamin A.
I do have a small area of mock strawberry in my backyard. I also have a regular strawberry patch from store berries I bought about 7 years ago. I allow the mock to remain, as I do pick some and add them to my strawberry jam that I make every year. Oh yeah, I'm in Northern Illinois
We have mock strawberries! I've had such a hard time identifying them because everyone I asked insisted they were wild strawberries. Thanks for finally giving me a positive id!
I grow alpine strawberries which are extremely similar to these wild varieties. The practically look the same and grow like weeds too! They are shockingly drought tolerant and can put up with a fair bit of neglect before they die off fully. I've had many plants die back to ground level but come right back when watered like a bare rood. They spread slowly because they don't have runners which is good for keeping them from taking over the garden!
The garden varieties of alpine strawberry are F. vesca that has been selected for not propagating by runners. They tend to produce a slightly larger fruit than true wild strawberries. There are actually some named varieties of alpine strawberries that DO produce runners, so it is a good idea to read the description to make sure it is in fact a runnerless variety!
I have both fragaria virginiana & vesca growing as a groundcover -- they both seem to be okay with full sun, but I do have them in spots where I know they'll have access to moisture when needed. I've notice the vesca is much more prolific in forming runners. It also likes interweaving with violets. During spring the violets are smaller, letting them have plenty of sun, but as summer arrives with it's hot temps, the violets are larger, providing a dappled shade to the strawberry plants. I think they work well together.
Moisture is the key. Many plants that are found in the shade in nature can be planted in more sun if they enough moisture. Violets go great with many of the native groundcovers. We have a bed that we just planted in wild ginger and it has violets all though it.
Now that I know the vesca can handle more shade I will have to acquire some. My virginiana has spread everywhere, but I’m just not getting much fruit off of them, especially in the shadier spots.
@@aliannarodriguez1581 I wouldn't say I get a lot of strawberries off the vesca so far, but I also haven't been looking too hard since I'm growing them as a groundcover. I have gotten more than the virginiana but I've thought it's because the wildlife has been grabbing them soon as they are ripe.
Those mock strawberries popped up in my yard this spring, don’t remember seeing them previously. Thank you for clarifying they are invasive, I will definitely be removing them from the yard!
When i was a little kid my dad called the imposter a wild strawberry. So, without his knowledge, i tasted one. Bitter is one way to describe it, if you want to be nice in your description.
The mock strawberries in my backyard (eastern Nebraska) are vile, bitter, and totally nasty! I don't understand how anyone could put one in their mouths more than once in a lifetime. Gross to the max!
There’s a strawberry plant here in my state of California called Irish Strawberry. It was brought here by Irish settlers during colonial times and has spread throughout the entire West Coast. Believe it or not, this strawberry is edible and thrives in most environments. I’ve eaten them and OMG delicious. 🤤
I don't mind Mock Strawberries, it's a little bit of food when I'm doing yardwork. I think the flesh has a little bit of flavor, but it might just be a placebo effect. I could eat them all day since they grow abundantly around me
What a great treat it is running into a patch of wild strawberries when out hiking on a hot summer day , in fact , I love wild strawberries way better than the store bought variety
Mock strawberries are called snake berries in China which it is also native to, they were believed to be poisonous by some people which they were not, and they actually do have some medicinal properties and used in traditional Chinese herbal medicine, they have a mystical origin of growing from places that snake passed by and snakes love to lick the fruit (for some reason), of course they do taste like much only a slight sweetness.
I have strawberry plants all over my yard. They produce white flowers but never any fruit. I like them as a ground cover better than the invasive Bermuda grass. I watch every year for fruit not a 1. The deer eat the leaves but they grow back rapidly. Thank you sir.
Wild strawberries are diecious - there are male and female plants. Since they can reproduce vegetatively by sending out runners it is possible to have a large patch of them that are all the same sex. So you could have a yard full of male plants or a yard full of female plants with nothing to pollinate them.
They're all over my back fence. Upon examination, they are Virginias. White flowers, round, pea sized, downward growing fruit. They're all over the neighborhood really, good to know they're actual strawberries.
This video answered a question I have had for over 10 years . One day while walking a foot path in Penn Yan NY I saw a "strawberry " A closer look at it and it didn't look like our wild strawberries in Pennsylvania . It was more rounded . Well now I know ! Thanks , Dude !
I had no idea about these native and invasive species! I had mock strawberries growing in my backyard as a kid and always wondered why they never tasted that good. I'd love to try growing some virginia strawberries one year ^_^
Both my daughter and I have mock strawberries growing in our yards. After many years of grabbing a quick snack while mowing I'm certain that they do taste good, but only for a day or two of their maturity cycle. They aren't worth bothering with simply for that reason. I grew up on the west coast, with a bounty of berry plants; Blackbereies, Blackcaps, Huckelberries, Salmonberries, etc. I really miss being able to walk out the back door and picking enough to make a dozen pies in just a few hours.
I live in the peedee area of south Carolina and i love eating wild strawberrys at my old house when i was a young child. I also remember alot ALOT ALOT of wild blackberries growing all throw out the area. We eat them every summer.
Congratulations on your popular video! I subscribed today. I grew up on the west coast eating wild strawberries off the beach. Moved to the midwest and saw these imposter strawberries and wasn't sure about them. Thank you for clearing this up.
@@BackyardEcology I think it is soil type, like you said strawberries like sandy soil. Where i live it is very heavy clay, They will not grow nativily in my climate. I always saw the virginia varity on pure sand and or rock.
@@MK-tu1zh There are a lot of factors. Wild strawberries have been recorded in my county in KY and surrounding counties but they are hard to find these days, along with a ton of other plants that use to be fairly common.
I have found the Pacific wild strawberry just once in my life, on a beach! Thanks for this explanation. One of my new favorite flowers is the wild violet! I have heard them called Woods Violets here.
I'd love more groundcover videos! In the Midwest I've been using pussytoes (Antennaria neglecta), purple poppy mallow (callirhoe involucrata), and several ground-hugging/creeping phloxes -- so far phlox bifida, maculata & subulata for sunny areas, and phlox divaricata for shady areas. I'm introducing phlox pilosa this year since I found a source for the straight species. I think some of those may cross into your region as well. I also am trying to colonize prairie smoke (geum triflorum). Outside your range I think but it's an amazing plant.
Some great groundcovers! There are a couple species of phlox growing on the farm. We didn't plant them they are just growing there naturally. There will be more groundcover content coming in the future!
I get those imposters in my yard a good bit. I've grown some strawberry plants myself and I know the birds have helped themselves, so I'm hoping some real wild strawberries start to take off around my property some time in the near future. Nothing like going through a stroll around the more wooded areas and finding a nice treat.
first time seeing this channel and i didn’t know how much i was into the history and the identification of wild fruit and fruit in general until now this stuff is very interesting and good to know but if we don’t start doing better and trying to save the bees we can pretty much kiss fruit and flowers goodbye as far as i know
I been eating "fake strawberries"and they are wet.and very subtle yet refreshing and clean like a flavored water. Yes! If one bottled the juice these yuppies would guzzle it by the gallon. Rinsed in cold water to chill is a refreshing moment munching them.and no lingering after taste. And you are ingesting a beneficial.
I grew up in Southern Commiefornia, and we had those Mock Strawberries along the entire northern side of our house. I suppose they needed the shade. We occasionally ate them as kids - if the snails didn't get them first - and far as I know, there weren't any regative namifications.
We had mock strawberries growing in my backyard when i was a kid, in Mississippi. Used to eat it, they were very mild and watery, but slightly sweet. We had a lot of rain where I was, and the biggest patch was under the eaves by the shed, so it was always damp there.
@@BackyardEcology i guess they were growing in a good spot then! There were also violet patches in the same spot. This was also old farmland and thebhouse was where the barn had originally been so anything that grew around it was extremely happy. We had a fig tree where the manure pile had been and that thing was MASSIVE. Kind of cool. We also had the edible wild garlic and onions too.
Plan to grow some of these in an area with Viola sororia, wild purple violet, and Viola striata, cream violet. I've been trying to find as many natives as possible to benefit insects and the birds. This will really make the local robins happy! Oh and V. sororia has a few cultivars, white, speckled and magenta colored versions. I'm going to attempt to breed really dark ones after finding some darker colored ones in my yard.
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🌸🦋🌸🦋 Learn about another great native ground cover, the violets in this video: ua-cam.com/video/3_NmVDrAdUU/v-deo.html 🌸🦋🌸🦋🦋🦋
Video Note: The scientific name on the range map for woodland strawberry was inadvertently written as Fragaria virginiana. It should be Fragaria vesca. The name is correct elsewhere in the video. Sorry for any confusion!
Bro I need your help, please make a similar native VS invasive video for Thistle, I just ordered some native thistle seeds , but we let invasive thistle grow in our yard our first year cuz birds and bees liked it , but 3 years later we still have sprouts coming up and we don't want to kill natives !!!!
@@knyghtryder3599 A native vs non-native thistle video is on my list!
@@BackyardEcologythese use to grow everywhere around where I live , now you can't find them , do you know where I can order plants ??
@@larryhatfield7372 Best bet is to contact your states native plant society. They will likely know of a nearby nursery that has them!
Yes to Native Ground overs, particularly those that work in shade. 😉
As a kid my parent's yard was covered in Virginia strawberries. I discovered that if I set the mower deck high and mowed before the plants flowered, they would flower and fruit low in the grass, below the cutting blades. I would get sweet treats for months as a reward for mowing.
Awesome! There is a lot to be said for setting the mower deck high.
Thank you for sharing your "sweet" story!
I love that!
My grandmother would send us kids out into the field to pick these so that she could make pie. I remember going inside crying because of the black fly swarms. My grandmother took no pity she said pick faster. 😂
Darn. All this time I thought I had a good patch of wild strawberries. Nope
I have a feeling you are not the only one. Most people I run into think the mock strawberry is the wild strawberry because it is so prevalent.
I have been removing the invasive each year as soon as it pops up. It prompted me to grow Fragaria virginiana and it is spectacular and yummy.
@@PlantNative Nice! The mock strawberries seem to show up everywhere!
Me too! 😢
Same!
Good thing they're not poisonous, I ate some. 😂
Used to have about half an acre of wild strawberries. I miss them so much! They were an absolute treat.
Emily, I have some and some black berries and blue berries I will share if you are in GA USA
“The rice cakes of the fruit world” got me good 😂
I used to eat the fake strawberry like crazy as a kid lmao. I loved them despite them not having much flavor unless you ate a handful at once and then they would finally have some taste but one at a time they don't.
At least them shits aren't poisonous like most imposters are 💀
Lol , im glad they were not poisonous, ive been eating everytime i see one😂
Well, I have mock strawberries in my yard, and while they don’t have the taste of a true strawberry, if you pick a small handful, they do taste like a strawberry, very subdued!
If they get plenty of water they may have some small amount of flavor but if it an area is moist enough for a mock strawberry to have a little taste, it is moist enough to plant some native strawberries.
I’ve had mock-strawberries before, they tasted a bit like watermelon to me!
@@digi_056 There have been a few others that have said the same thing. I think it depends on how much water they are getting.
Speak for yourself-I’ve tasted them, and they’re bland as dust to me. Not to mention that they spread worse than anything and have no respect for my flower garden space!
Also has major health benefits
I remember my grandmother had a particular hiking trail she liked to take near her home where we could reliably find wild woodland strawberries to forage for and have as a treat after lunch. Such a sweet little secret she found among the Rockies.
That is awesome!
We have these "mock strawberries" growing wild scattered all over our front and back yards. At first, I didn't know what they were or that they're safe to eat until my husband picked one and ate it. Now, they are one of the reasons I look forward to spring. If the weather is favourable, we can get a pretty good sized harvest. You're right, they don't have much flavour on their own, so I typically stir them into the batter for pancakes or put them in cereal. 😋
We also have some of those "native violets" (I've been calling them "violas"--oops) growing wild in our front yard. We have way more of them this spring than we've ever had before and I'm super excited about it... even more so now that I know they're helpful to bees and butterflies and not just that "they look so pretty."
More native ground covers please. Great information!
Thanks! I have a few groundcover ideas in the works.
native eyelid? not sure what u were saying..
Wild strawberries and blueberries just taste so much better.
I agree!
crazypants, they are also 5 times as nutritious
My theory is that there is a finite amount of flavor available for each berry. You get it in a concentrated form in the smaller wild berries, or diluted in the bigger, more watery commercial ones. It takes more time and patience to pick the wild ones, but it's well worth the effort.
Here in Montana we have something similar to the Mock Strawberry, namely Potentilla uniflora. It is a very aggressive ground cover, and particularly useful on high pH clay soils where strawberries typically show strong iron-deficiency symptoms. In contrast to strawberry's yellow-green foliage, the leaves of Potentilla uniflora remain dark green on these alkaline soils and these plants effectively suppress other weeds. The bright red fruit, unfortunately, is completely without merit unless you are an American Robin, a Ringnecked Pheasant or a Hungarian Partridge. So if you are willing to share some of your produce with the birds, and want an aggressive groundcover under fruit trees ..., then you may want to try sharing parts of your garden with Potentilla uniflora.
There are many native potentillas across the U.S. I may do a video featuring some of them.
Here in my bummie I have something called dingleberries. Small and flavorful. Yum!
@@raunchyrarebit Chris 🤨
@@2degucitas Some little kid (@Chris) got on mommy's computer again.
Mock Strawberries are great when Pickled for charcuterie boards or thin sliced for sandwiches Yum
Interesting.
Something about the texture of the mock strawberries makes me like them. Out of all of the kinds of berries, blackberries are my favorite, though.
We used to call mock strawberries "Indian strawberries." This video helped me figure out why.
The mock strawberries we had around here were not bitter or anything. They were pretty bland, mostly, but sometimes there was a bit of sweetness. It was thought that they were poisonous because they had 3 leaves! I thought it was fun to forage, so I would often eat them for the novelty.
interesting. do you think that's because poison oak/poison ivy have the same basic leaf shape (3 leaflets)?
@@alexandroquintero1964 Yeah, we were always taught "Leaves of 3, let it be." That way you definitely wouldn't eat poison ivy or something. I think I read a book about these or something, because I somehow knew they were fine to eat.
Girl gonna need that native ground cover video!!
There will be more native ground covers coming soon!
The quality of the content is unmatched. Truly one of a kind.
Thank you!
I love how the violets made their way into my strawberry beds. Those invasive mock strawberries that made their way into my yard are indeed dry, mealy, and tasteless.
Violets and strawberries go great together!
I like Mock Strawberries…. Maybe I’m a full rice cake type
My parents built a house on a lake in NC before I was born, and we had wild strawberries and violets. My parents didn’t let me eat the wild strawberries because they didn’t want me to be eating wild berries and poisoning myself. Our area had a lot of poke, and those poisonous berries do look juicy and delicious. We moved before I was old enough to be trusted to only eat the strawberries.
My husband and I moved to Chicago for a while, and I found some tiny strawberries at a farmers market. They were a variety that was supposed to be very close to wild strawberries. The smell was amazing. I bought a flat thinking I’d make some jam (I’m allergic to apples and oranges so I can’t eat pectin and commercial jam). The strawberries were everything you could possibly want in a strawberry so my husband and I just ate them with heavy cream. No sugar needed. We moved back to NC for my husband’s job, and those small varieties don’t do well here.
Reál brand strawberry syrup uses a small strawberry from California and is really good. Very fragrant. The syrups are used for cocktails, but I use it for lemonade.
Thank you I've been searching for ever, mock strawberry yes thanks that is what it is.
Glad the video was helpful!
Thank you very much. Clear concise and on point. And factual about native and invasive handling. You don't find that hardly ever. Most people don't know what the heck they're talking about or even why. Show a big shout out and thank you
Thank you! Glad you liked the video!
Mock strawberries are delicious paired with gravel and blended.
You could probably leave out the mock strawberries and get the same taste from just the gravel.
@@Drosenv I don't hate anything, but I am being silly about the flavor of the mock berries. I don;t want to eat them, and I don't want to eat gravel, and I certainly don't want to blend them! Sorry for the confusion.
Thanks for the very informative video. Our old place in southern VT had many strawberry plants and I have eaten only a few. The birds and animals always got them first. They are delicious and incredibly small. Compared to farm raised Berry's. Thanks again.
Thanks! It is always tough to beat the critters to the berries, although I don't mind it too much if they beat me to them.
Mock strawberries are a chickens favorite treat.
Thank you for introducing me to potentilla indica or mock strawberry. I found this growing wild on the roadside in Cameron Highlands, Malaysia
You saw it in its native range! Cool!
Thank you! We are being overwhelmed with these imposters. Trying to get rid of them has been quite the challenge!
Mock strawberry can be tough to get a handle on!
My honey bees love native strawberries
I have two of these. I planted seven wild strawberries in a 10’x7’ space. In the last year they have almost entirely filled the space with runners!
NIce! They will fill in quickly.
I like mock strawberries, been eating them since I was a kid. I enjoy their tecture, kind of a crunch. They grow out here in Cali too.
Thank you for making it clear what area of the world you were talking about.
Perfectly timed video. I saw some wild strawberry in my garden area while weeding. Looks like the mock strawberry. I’ll have to take it out.
Happy you found the video useful!
While the mock strawberries have little taste they do have a nice texture, some nutritional value (good source of vitamin C and dietary fiber, w/traces of iron/VitA/etc), and the flowers/leaves have medicinal properties. You can mock them all you want; They still share this land with all of us.
They are edible, but I wouldn't consider them something I'd want to eat unless I had to. And while they do have some medicinal uses I would rather have native species growing where the mock strawberries are crowding them out.
@@BackyardEcology It's not its fault it's here...no more invasive than you and I. Technically many plants have naturalized here that foragers use regularly. From plantains to dandelion to garlic mustard. I find one of the best ways to reduce non-native species is to eat them, or drink them:)
@@georgemcduffey2622 People don't eat them fast enough to make a dent in their populations.
It's interesting to me the kinds of things people will or won't tolerate in their yards. What's considered ornamental, beneficial, invasive, etc. I have a friend who lives down the street who takes such care of his lawn, you won't find a single weed in it ever. He thinks it's funny when I excitedly talk about some interesting little plant that just randomly started growing in our yard (because we don't do anything more than mow).
I don't think I could get rid of all our mock strawberries if I tried. It's like I'd have to spray the whole front and back yard with Roundup. And I really don't want to do that, for fear of what else might get hurt/killed. Plus, I like them anyway.
Beech strawberry with white flesh and red seeds looks amazing!
please more vids on native groundcover 🤘🏻 i moderate an anti-lawn subreddit and we get sooooo many comments asking this
I have started a native groundcover playlist! Here is the link to it: ua-cam.com/play/PLYie5upT7CI03L6_g_p8K_wVXEotRUUJg.html
Good straight forward video. Thank you
"Mom, I want strawberries!"
"We have strawberries at home."
Strawberries at home:
When I was a kid we called the mock strawberries "Waterberries" because they just taste like water. I have lots of both real & mock berries in my yard. Thanks for teaching me how to tell them apart before they flower.
Glad you found the video helpful!
Thanks so much for sharing the beautiful strawberries and so much right information about it. Hugs and kisses from grandma, Sandy, and Debbie.
Glad you enjoyed the video!
This means that I have never had a wild strawberry 🍓 😂 Great video!
Most people haven't. The look a like mock strawberry is much more common in most places in the east.
Got wild strawberry where I'm at.
Amazing how I basically never ever see vids like this in my feed and today I was telling my gf how I found these odd looking strawberries in the yard and magically this video arrives within 24 hours. I love being stalked
After I moved here I found so many strawberry plants in my backyard and was so excited! Turns out they're Mock Strawberries! The green leaves can be used as an edible pot herb or dried to make a wonderful tea. The berries were often used in pioneer days to fill in if there weren't enough real strawberries for jam. The plant has a ton of medicinal value. They also make a great ground cover. When they start to take over just rip them out and eat. They're drought resistant and do well in full sun or shade.
The thing is, mock strawberries offer next to nothing for our native pollinators and most wildlife don't touch them. There are hundreds of native plants that are great for our pollinators and wildlife many of which are also edible and can be made into tea. I would much rather have those and remove mock strawberries.
When we bought our home it was fall but by the next summer we noticed a nice patch of strawberry just one step from our back porch been picking them since
Nice!
Thanks for this video, it is very helpful! I would love to hear more about native ground covers!
Glad you found the video useful! More native groundcover content coming in the future!
Excellent video! Thank you for the education!!!
You learn something new every day, I suppose! I've been eating the mock strawberries for years- never had any problem with the taste, because I find the texture of the seeds pleasant. Guess I'll have to be more discerning from now on! Thank you for teaching me!
The mock berries are perfectly fine to eat, just no where near as good as an actual wild strawberry.
Well I'll be double dipped. I am old yard guy and you just taught me a new trick! Yes, I have fake strawberries. Well I never! I'd cheat and upvote this one 6 times if I knew how Mr. Ecology! Woof! Good one!
Thanks!
Yes for native groundcovers
More native ground cover content coming in the future!
My mom always hated wild violets, but I've always loved them. The flowers are so pretty when they're in bloom, and when they aren't, their foliage is a deep glossy green even when it hasn't rained in a month. Never quite understood why people call them weeds.
Me either! They are beautiful and hardy little plants!
I make violet jelly looks and taste like pink lemonade and violets and their early leaves can be added on a salad or decorate a cake with the violet flowers
@@JaneDoe-ng3zm They are a very useful plant - in so many ways!
The leaves are great in salads, but it’s a lot of work making sure there are no slugs hiding in them.
i love the way you present the side by side of how to tell things apart. I've lived my life around plants and my dad was a botanist, but I don't always remember the specifics of identifying very similar plants. you make it easy to remember!
Thank you! Glad you are enjoying the content!
I love these little plants, I often times with my maintenance contracts will, along with some of the violas, weed out the other weedier plants and leave them to grow into a volunteer ground cover. Speaking of groundcovers, I would love to hear about more of them.
We tend to leave the violets too - great free, low effort groundcover! There will be more groundcover content coming in the future.
I love wild violets. I eat them every spring and my dog even loves them. Throw some in your salad for color and appeal. Both the leaves and flowers are edible and packed with vitamin C and vitamin A.
Awesome! They are a very useful little plant!
I do have a small area of mock strawberry in my backyard. I also have a regular strawberry patch from store berries I bought about 7 years ago. I allow the mock to remain, as I do pick some and add them to my strawberry jam that I make every year. Oh yeah, I'm in Northern Illinois
We have mock strawberries! I've had such a hard time identifying them because everyone I asked insisted they were wild strawberries. Thanks for finally giving me a positive id!
Awesome! Glad you found the video useful!
I’m in North Carolina my entire yard is filled with violets. Don’t have to mow and it looks gorgeous.
Nice!
I grow alpine strawberries which are extremely similar to these wild varieties. The practically look the same and grow like weeds too! They are shockingly drought tolerant and can put up with a fair bit of neglect before they die off fully. I've had many plants die back to ground level but come right back when watered like a bare rood. They spread slowly because they don't have runners which is good for keeping them from taking over the garden!
The garden varieties of alpine strawberry are F. vesca that has been selected for not propagating by runners. They tend to produce a slightly larger fruit than true wild strawberries. There are actually some named varieties of alpine strawberries that DO produce runners, so it is a good idea to read the description to make sure it is in fact a runnerless variety!
I have both fragaria virginiana & vesca growing as a groundcover -- they both seem to be okay with full sun, but I do have them in spots where I know they'll have access to moisture when needed. I've notice the vesca is much more prolific in forming runners. It also likes interweaving with violets. During spring the violets are smaller, letting them have plenty of sun, but as summer arrives with it's hot temps, the violets are larger, providing a dappled shade to the strawberry plants. I think they work well together.
Moisture is the key. Many plants that are found in the shade in nature can be planted in more sun if they enough moisture. Violets go great with many of the native groundcovers. We have a bed that we just planted in wild ginger and it has violets all though it.
Now that I know the vesca can handle more shade I will have to acquire some. My virginiana has spread everywhere, but I’m just not getting much fruit off of them, especially in the shadier spots.
@@aliannarodriguez1581 I wouldn't say I get a lot of strawberries off the vesca so far, but I also haven't been looking too hard since I'm growing them as a groundcover. I have gotten more than the virginiana but I've thought it's because the wildlife has been grabbing them soon as they are ripe.
Those mock strawberries popped up in my yard this spring, don’t remember seeing them previously. Thank you for clarifying they are invasive, I will definitely be removing them from the yard!
Glad you found the video useful! Hope you are successful in controlling the mock strawberries.
Ground covers!!! Yes please
More ground covers coming in the future!
I use the native violets to crowd out the mock strawberries. They are really incredible!
Violets are one of the most underrated natives! Excellent in many applications!
When i was a little kid my dad called the imposter a wild strawberry.
So, without his knowledge, i tasted one. Bitter is one way to describe it, if you want to be nice in your description.
The mock strawberries in my backyard (eastern Nebraska) are vile, bitter, and totally nasty! I don't understand how anyone could put one in their mouths more than once in a lifetime. Gross to the max!
There’s a strawberry plant here in my state of California called Irish Strawberry. It was brought here by Irish settlers during colonial times and has spread throughout the entire West Coast. Believe it or not, this strawberry is edible and thrives in most environments. I’ve eaten them and OMG delicious. 🤤
I don't mind Mock Strawberries, it's a little bit of food when I'm doing yardwork. I think the flesh has a little bit of flavor, but it might just be a placebo effect. I could eat them all day since they grow abundantly around me
No shortage of them here either, they seem to grow everywhere.
Thanks for this. Very informative and fun!
What a great treat it is running into a patch of wild strawberries when out hiking on a hot summer day , in fact , I love wild strawberries way better than the store bought variety
They have much better flavor!
@@BackyardEcology yup , I agree with that , they definitely taste better and they're not "meaty" or have big seeds like the store bought variety
Mock strawberries are called snake berries in China which it is also native to, they were believed to be poisonous by some people which they were not, and they actually do have some medicinal properties and used in traditional Chinese herbal medicine, they have a mystical origin of growing from places that snake passed by and snakes love to lick the fruit (for some reason), of course they do taste like much only a slight sweetness.
Interesting! I wondered why they were known as snake berries. They are called that in some parts of the US as well.
Mmmmm alpine berries! We get them in July/august, absolutely incredible! I'm so glad I never see that naughty imposter!
I have strawberry plants all over my yard. They produce white flowers but never any fruit. I like them as a ground cover better than the invasive Bermuda grass. I watch every year for fruit not a 1. The deer eat the leaves but they grow back rapidly. Thank you sir.
Wild strawberries are diecious - there are male and female plants. Since they can reproduce vegetatively by sending out runners it is possible to have a large patch of them that are all the same sex. So you could have a yard full of male plants or a yard full of female plants with nothing to pollinate them.
They're all over my back fence.
Upon examination, they are Virginias. White flowers, round, pea sized, downward growing fruit.
They're all over the neighborhood really, good to know they're actual strawberries.
Awesome!
Love your informative commentary.
Thank you! Glad you liked it.
This was such a cool video! I loved that Beach Strawberrie.
Thanks! Glad you liked it! The beach strawberries are a super cool species.
I feel like strawberry expert now! Great video! I love the bee shirt too!🙂👍
Awesome! Thank you!
This video answered a question I have had for over 10 years . One day while walking a foot path in Penn Yan NY I saw a "strawberry " A closer look at it and it didn't look like our wild strawberries in Pennsylvania . It was more rounded . Well now I know ! Thanks , Dude !
Glad you found the video useful!
I love our wild strawberries 🍓 they are so delicious
Thank you!
I had no idea about these native and invasive species! I had mock strawberries growing in my backyard as a kid and always wondered why they never tasted that good. I'd love to try growing some virginia strawberries one year ^_^
The native strawberries are great! You will not regret planting some.
Duchesnea indica, totally tasteless berries, but a medicinal plant that grows in abundance in my yard here in SE Ohio.
Both my daughter and I have mock strawberries growing in our yards. After many years of grabbing a quick snack while mowing I'm certain that they do taste good, but only for a day or two of their maturity cycle. They aren't worth bothering with simply for that reason.
I grew up on the west coast, with a bounty of berry plants; Blackbereies, Blackcaps, Huckelberries, Salmonberries, etc. I really miss being able to walk out the back door and picking enough to make a dozen pies in just a few hours.
Love violets. We make amazing jelly out of them most years.
My backyard is covered with native violets.
I live in the peedee area of south Carolina and i love eating wild strawberrys at my old house when i was a young child. I also remember alot ALOT ALOT of wild blackberries growing all throw out the area. We eat them every summer.
Nice! If the blackberry bloom we had this spring converts to berries well it is going to be a bumper crop!
Congratulations on your popular video! I subscribed today. I grew up on the west coast eating wild strawberries off the beach. Moved to the midwest and saw these imposter strawberries and wasn't sure about them. Thank you for clearing this up.
Thanks for subbing! Unfortunately it is much easier to find mock strawberries in much of the east than it is to find an actual native strawberry.
@@BackyardEcology I think it is soil type, like you said strawberries like sandy soil. Where i live it is very heavy clay, They will not grow nativily in my climate. I always saw the virginia varity on pure sand and or rock.
@@MK-tu1zh There are a lot of factors. Wild strawberries have been recorded in my county in KY and surrounding counties but they are hard to find these days, along with a ton of other plants that use to be fairly common.
Good to know about the Fool's Strawberries! Thanks :)
Watching with my Steve the Strawberry from Edible. Might go out and pull the couple of mock strawberries I know are in the yard later.
I have found the Pacific wild strawberry just once in my life, on a beach! Thanks for this explanation. One of my new favorite flowers is the wild violet! I have heard them called Woods Violets here.
Glad it was helpful!
I'd love more groundcover videos! In the Midwest I've been using pussytoes (Antennaria neglecta), purple poppy mallow (callirhoe involucrata), and several ground-hugging/creeping phloxes -- so far phlox bifida, maculata & subulata for sunny areas, and phlox divaricata for shady areas. I'm introducing phlox pilosa this year since I found a source for the straight species. I think some of those may cross into your region as well. I also am trying to colonize prairie smoke (geum triflorum). Outside your range I think but it's an amazing plant.
Some great groundcovers! There are a couple species of phlox growing on the farm. We didn't plant them they are just growing there naturally. There will be more groundcover content coming in the future!
When I lived in the country we had wild strawberries and they're small but 10x better than store bought
I HAVE BEEN SURROUNDED BY LIES!
I get those imposters in my yard a good bit. I've grown some strawberry plants myself and I know the birds have helped themselves, so I'm hoping some real wild strawberries start to take off around my property some time in the near future. Nothing like going through a stroll around the more wooded areas and finding a nice treat.
Always a nice surprise to find some wild strawberries!
first time seeing this channel and i didn’t know how much i was into the history and the identification of wild fruit and fruit in general until now this stuff is very interesting and good to know but if we don’t start doing better and trying to save the bees we can pretty much kiss fruit and flowers goodbye as far as i know
I been eating "fake strawberries"and they are wet.and very subtle yet refreshing and clean like a flavored water.
Yes! If one bottled the juice these yuppies would guzzle it by the gallon.
Rinsed in cold water to chill is a refreshing moment munching them.and no lingering after taste.
And you are ingesting a beneficial.
Wow I found this video because I saw a mock strawberry for the first time!
Nice!
I grew up in Southern Commiefornia, and we had those Mock Strawberries along the entire northern side of our house. I suppose they needed the shade. We occasionally ate them as kids - if the snails didn't get them first - and far as I know, there weren't any regative namifications.
I'm just here for your shirt 👕!
A five year hobby beekeeper; always explaining (since 7 lol) what is a bee 🐝 or not. 🫡
Thanks! It is my favorite shirt!
So cool. A indigenous and endemic strawberry to the east Coast northern hemisphere in the America's continent.
We had mock strawberries growing in my backyard when i was a kid, in Mississippi.
Used to eat it, they were very mild and watery, but slightly sweet.
We had a lot of rain where I was, and the biggest patch was under the eaves by the shed, so it was always damp there.
Water has a huge impact on if they have any juice or not, and also on the flavor.
@@BackyardEcology i guess they were growing in a good spot then! There were also violet patches in the same spot. This was also old farmland and thebhouse was where the barn had originally been so anything that grew around it was extremely happy. We had a fig tree where the manure pile had been and that thing was MASSIVE. Kind of cool. We also had the edible wild garlic and onions too.
@@labaccident2010 Sounds like a great place for things to grow. I bet that fig was happy! They really take off in rich soil.
Tks for the info. They ARE invasive!
Yes they are, and it seems like a bumper year for them!
Plan to grow some of these in an area with Viola sororia, wild purple violet, and Viola striata, cream violet. I've been trying to find as many natives as possible to benefit insects and the birds. This will really make the local robins happy!
Oh and V. sororia has a few cultivars, white, speckled and magenta colored versions. I'm going to attempt to breed really dark ones after finding some darker colored ones in my yard.
Wild strawberries and wild violets go great together!