musk strawberry

Photo: Dendrofil — Public domain · source

Survives zone 4 through 8

Harvest calendar

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

Historically the first strawberry to receive a cultivar name (France, 1576) and the dominant garden strawberry across much of Europe before being displaced by the modern garden strawberry in the 19th century — grown for a complex aroma blending strawberry, raspberry and pineapple notes rather than fruit size.

Hardiness

Zone 4–8

Habit

Groundcover

Edible part

Fruit

Ripens

Summer–autumn

Mature size

The tallest wild strawberry — an upright rosette 20–40 cm, spreading by runners

Light

Full sun to partial

Soil pH

6.0–7.0 (near-neutral)

Environment

Woodland

Native range

Central and eastern Europe — France and the Low Countries east through Germany, the Alps and the Balkans to European Russia, and on to the Caucasus and south-western Siberia. Naturalised rather than native in Scandinavia, Britain and Ireland, where it is an escape from the cultivation that was widespread until the late nineteenth century.

Status

Both wild and cultivated

Years to fruit

2–4 yrs

Growth speed

Fast once established, reaching fruiting maturity within 1–2 years.

Spacing

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

Leaf shape

Trifoliate, the leaflets large, deeply veined and softly hairy on both sides, on tall hairy petioles — the coarsest foliage of the wild strawberries, matching its unusual height.

Root system

Fibrous, dividing into numerous fine roots, with stoloniferous surface runners for spread.

Fruit description

Small, round, deep red berries — much smaller than the modern garden strawberry but intensely aromatic, with a flavor often described as blending strawberry, raspberry and pineapple; grown for fragrance over size or yield.

Propagation

By seed, sown in early spring (takes four or more weeks to germinate), or more reliably by dividing and transplanting rooted runners in July–August; commercial stock is usually propagated vegetatively since seed-grown plants segregate by sex.

Pollination

Functionally dioecious — wild and garden populations include separate male, female and, less commonly, hermaphrodite plants; neither female nor hermaphrodite plants are reliably self-fertile, so a male pollinator needs to be planted nearby for fruiting.

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.