Photo: Ivar Leidus — CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Survives zone 2 through 7
Harvest calendar
Best planted in early spring after your last frost, or in fall before the ground freezes, depending on your climate.
⚠ Honestly: only 2–6 large translucent red drupelets per fruit — sharply acidic, more curiosity than crop; used for cordial in Scandinavia.
- Hardiness
- Zone 2–7
- Habit
- Shrub
- Edible part
- Fruit
- Ripens
- July–Aug
- Mature size
- Low herbaceous-stemmed runner 20–40 cm; spreads by stolons
- Light
- Partial to shade — a genuine woodland understorey species
- Soil pH
- 6.0–7.5 (lime-tolerant)
- Environment
- Boreal and montane woodland
- Native range
- Native to Europe — from Iceland south to the Pyrenees — and temperate Asia east to Japan; occurs in cooler boreal and montane zones including Scandinavia and the British uplands.
- Status
- Wild
- Years to fruit
- 2–3 yrs
- Growth speed
- Slow to moderate — spreads gradually via stolons rather than vigorous cane growth, taking a couple of seasons to knit into a patch.
- Spacing
- 30 cm (12 in) apart — about 11 per m² (10 per 10 sq ft)
- Leaf shape
- Trifoliate, strawberry-like leaves on creeping, sparsely prickly, more-herbaceous-than-woody stems — low and sprawling rather than an upright cane.
- Root system
- Spreads by shallow, rooting stolons rather than deep rhizomes, forming a loose mat that is easily divided.
- Fruit description
- Only 2–6 large, translucent red drupelets per fruit, forming a loose, open cluster rather than a solid berry — sharply acid, more curiosity than crop; traditionally stewed into cordial in Scandinavia.
- Propagation
- Easiest by division of the creeping, rooted stolons in spring or autumn; also by seed (needs cold stratification — sow in autumn or chill one month at around 3°C) or semi-ripe cuttings in July–August.
- 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.
Growing guide
Fertilizing. A calcicole — thrives on lime-rich, basic soils and struggles on strongly acid ground, so add garden lime or dolomitic grit if the soil is acidic. Needs little feeding beyond an annual leaf-mold mulch — heavy nitrogen feeding pushes leafy growth at the expense of the already-sparse fruit.
How it spreads. Spreads by slender creeping stolons that root as they travel, forming low sprawling mats rather than upright canes.
Growing tips. A genuine woodland-floor plant — happiest in part shade to shade on stony, humus-rich, lime-influenced ground. Stems are only sparsely prickly and more herbaceous than woody; grown as a curiosity or groundcover rather than for yield.
Grow journal
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