Fragaria virginiana

Mountain strawberry

Family: Rosaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Mountain strawberry is a California native perennial found in the Klamath Ranges, Cascade Range high country, Sierra Nevada, and North Coast Ranges in meadows and forest openings at elevations of 1,200 to 3,300 meters. Flowering from May to August, this plant produces white flowers approximately 10 to 20 millimeters wide with delicate petals. Growing with low-spreading stems 2 to 12 centimeters tall, it forms compact clusters close to the ground. Its leaves have three leaflets, with the central leaflet 15 to 60 millimeters long, obovate in shape and featuring 7 to 13 teeth along the upper half of the leaf margin. The fruit develops as a sweet red strawberry receptacle approximately 10 millimeters long, supporting small achenes.

Habitat: Meadows, forest openings

Bloom period: May-Aug

Elevation: generally 1200-3300 m

Bioregions: KR, CaRH, SNH, MP

California counties: Fresno, Tulare, Butte, Nevada, El Dorado, Mono, Modoc, Shasta, Lassen, Inyo, Siskiyou, Plumas, Tehama, Placer, Humboldt, Mariposa, Del Norte, Tuolumne, Alpine

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.