Mock strawberries?

[davidinsydney]

Hello!

I saw an ad on gumtree (local classifieds) where a guy was selling alpine strawberry plants.

I went ahead and bought a couple of trays since they were only a couple of dollars. Even if i accidentally killed them, I was losing much in terms of investment.

When I went home, I did some research on alpine strawberries, I had read that alpine strawberries do not usually send out runners, whereas the plants I bought did. Today I noticed that the flower petals were bright yellow, which I had never seen before. Turns out they were “mock strawberries”. Has anyone seen these before/confirm what they are?

Here is a photo of the yellow petals, and a photo of the fruit from the ad which was posted on gum tree.

 

[Marck]

Yes, this is Mock-strawberry (Potentilla indica, formerly Duchesnea indica) in the Rose Family (Rosaceae). Also known as Indian Strawberry, this yellow-flowered ground-cover is native to southern and eastern Asia, Sri Lanka, Philippines, Hainan, Taiwan, and Japan.
The fruit are edible, but the taste and texture do not compare with true strawberries (Fragaria spp.).

 

[davidinsydney]

Thank you Marck!

 

[Oliver Buckle]

Strawberries are interesting, there are an awful lot of them world wide. The original English strawberries made small fruit, like alpine strawberries, but also made runners. The one grown traditionally as a strawberry was a hybrid that was discovered in France, it is a cross between a North American one that grows in open woodland and a South American one that grows in coastal scrub land. When it was discovered in the 1600's the French monarch sent some to King Charles in England, he thought them good, but he still made sure that a lot of English strawberry runners were planted, the berries are tiny, but have much more taste, and if you are a King you don't have to pick them. Over the last thirty years or so I have been seeing other hybrids turning up, ones you can grow all year round, trailing ones for hanging baskets etc. but although they have their enthusiasts none of them appear very convincing so far. Still, like I say there are a lot to experiment with, someone may well turn up the 'wonder' strawberry one day.