Iturup strawberry

Photo: Dr U — Public domain · source

Survives zone 4 through 7

Harvest calendar

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

Discovered on Iturup Island in the Kuril Islands and formally described in 1973; unusual among wild strawberries outside the Americas for its relatively large fruit, comparable in size to Virginia strawberry, and notable for including both octoploid and rare naturally occurring decaploid individuals — the first decaploid strawberry ever documented.

Hardiness

Zone 4–7

Habit

Groundcover

Edible part

Fruit

Ripens

Summer–autumn

Mature size

Rosette 10–20 cm, spreading by runners

Light

Full sun to partial

Soil pH

6.0–7.0 (near-neutral)

Environment

Temperate

Native range

Endemic to Iturup Island in the Kuril Islands, Russia; occurs in volcanic montane habitat rather than the island's foggy coastal/sandy zones.

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

35 cm (14 in) apart — about 8.2 per m² (7.6 per 10 sq ft)

Leaf shape

Trifoliate, the leaflets thick and dark green with coarse teeth — an octoploid species, and the leaves are correspondingly large for a wild strawberry.

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

Relatively large berries for a wild species, similar in size and appearance to Virginia strawberry; no further documented detail on color, texture or flavor.

Propagation

Runners, which is what the plant is built for -- peg a plantlet down into soil or a pot, sever it once rooted, and you have a clone. Seed matters only for species and breeding: it needs surface sowing, light, and cold stratification, and the seedlings are variable.

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.