Taiwan strawberry

Survives zone 7 through 9

Harvest calendar

Best planted in early spring after your last frost, or in fall before the ground freezes, depending on your climate.

A Taiwan-endemic wild strawberry distinguished by anthocyanin pigmentation throughout the plant — red leaf stalks, red runners, red fruit; used experimentally as a diploid breeding parent crossed with cultivated strawberry cultivars.

Hardiness

Zone 7–9

Habit

Groundcover

Edible part

Fruit

Ripens

Summer–autumn

Mature size

Low rosette 5–15 cm, spreading by runners

Light

Partial shade

Soil pH

6.0–7.0 (near-neutral)

Environment

Montane

Native range

Endemic to Taiwan, distributed island-wide in sparse forests, roadsides and rocky ground at mid-to-high elevations.

Status

Wild

Years to fruit

2–4 yrs

Growth speed

Fast — a single plant can fill a square metre in a season by runner

Spacing

30 cm (12 in) apart — about 11 per m² (10 per 10 sq ft)

Leaf shape

Trifoliate basal leaves with broadly rhombic to obovate, serrated leaflets and slightly notched tips, hairy on both surfaces.

Root system

Shallow and fibrous from a short woody crown, almost all of it in the top 15–30 cm, with new roots striking down wherever a runner touches soil. Nothing to dig around: the crown must sit at soil level, buried too deep it rots and planted too high it dries out.

Fruit description

A small aggregate fruit that turns red at maturity; fruiting occurs roughly July–November in the wild.

Propagation

Spreads and can be propagated via stolons; no specific seed-germination protocol is documented.

Pollination

Self-fertile

The edible parts listed above are a starting point, not a field guide. Identify a plant with certainty — ideally against a local authority — before eating any part of it, and read the full disclaimer. Spotted something wrong? Report it.