Wild Strawberry - Wozupi App

General Details

Dakota Name:

Ważuṡteca

Scientific Name:

Fragaria virginiana

Alternate Names:

Common strawberry, Virginia strawberry

Height:

Grows 4 -8 inches

Flowers:

Flowers are 1/2 to 3/4 inch wide with 5 white petals and a yellowish center. Usually several bloom at a time in May.

Fruit:

Red fleshy fruit arrives in June. Globe shaped and covered with seeds.

Habitat:

Common in dry open fields, woodland edges, along railroads and roadsides.

Plant Characteristics

This perennial herb spreads by seed and also by short rhizomes that grow horizontally below the surface. The toothed leaves are thin and located at the base. They appear in leaflets of 3 and are 1 to 1-1/2 inches long and 3/4 to 1 inch wide. Oval to wedge-shaped and rounded at the tip end and are generally smooth above, often with a bluish-green color to them.

Dakota Cultural Use

All the tribes were fond of wild strawberries and luxuriated in them in their season, but the fruit was too juicy to lend itself to the process of drying successfully for winter use so it was often eaten raw, made into jelly or jam, or added to meat. Young leaves of the “strawberry vine” were infused to make a beverage like tea. Wažužuštečašarefers to the moon when strawberries are ripe (June).