The Wild Strawberry is common all over Britain. In early summer you find
it in woods and on shady hedge-banks. This pretty plant is related to
the Wild Rose. It has dainty little flowers, with five small white
petals, and behind these petals is a star of ten green pointed sepals.
Five of these sepals have large points which show in between the white
petals as you look down into the flowers, and the five which are smaller
you can only see at the back of the flower.
The stamens grow in a ring close round the seed-vessel, and as they are
joined to the sepals, they do not fall off when the white petals wither.
As the fruit ripens, the seed-vessel swells into a bright red berry, and
you can see the tiny yellow seeds clinging all over this juicy berry.
The green leaves of the Wild Strawberry are beautiful. They are dark and
crinkled, with soft hairs on the edges, and these edges are cut into
large teeth. There are always three leaflets at the end of each stalk.
This Strawberry plant sends out long green shoots which lie close to the
ground. Wherever a tuft of leaves rises from one of these shoots, a
little bunch of white roots grows down into the ground, and these help
to keep the plant steady.