Fragaria vesca (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Fragaria vesca L.

Family: Rosaceae

Vernacular names

• Wood strawberry (En)
• Fraisier des bois (Fr)
• Indonesia: arben
• Malaysia: strawberi
• Philippines: atakbang (Igorot)
• Thailand: stroboeri
• Vietnam: dâu tây.

Distribution

Originally from temperate Europe, now occasionally cultivated there and locally elsewhere in the Old World, although it is increasingly replaced by F. ×ananassa (Duchesne) Guédès.

Uses

Fruits are eaten raw or prepared as jam, jelly, etc. All parts of the plant have been used in traditional medicine, mainly against infections of urinary organs and against diarrhoea.

Observations

• Small erect perennial herb, spreading widely by means of runners or slender creeping stolons.
• Leaves trifoliolate.
• Flowers white.
• Fruit a pseudocarp, obovoid, about 1.5 cm × 1 cm, dotted with achenes also in the bottom part; fruiting calyx patent or reflexed; flesh soft and sweet.

In Malesia it grows well at higher altitudes. In Europe many forms have been distinguished.

Selected sources

• Heyne, K., 1927. De nuttige planten van Nederlandsch Indië [The useful plants of the Dutch East Indies]. 2nd ed. 3 Volumes. Departement van Landbouw, Nijverheid en Handel in Nederlandsch Indië. 1953 pp.

• Kalkman, C., 1968. Potentilla, Duchesnea, and Fragaria in Malesia (Rosaceae). Blumea 16: 325-354.

• Mansfeld, R. & Schultze Motel, J., 1986. Verzeichnis landwirtschaftlicher und gärtnerischer Kuturpflanzen. 2nd ed. 4 Volumes. Springer Verlag, Berlin. 1998 pp.

Authors

P.C.M. Jansen, J. Jukema, L.P.A. Oyen, T.G. van Lingen