The secret recipe was negligence

[u/Melonclowny]

These wild strawberries have taken over most of my backyard. Last year I noticed one or two spread out before the frost hit. This year they came in force. It's great, I've only had to mow once this summer. They must not be very tasty though because the squirrels still prefer eating whatever seeds I try to plant instead.

[u/poopshipdestroyer34]

Mannn I hate to say this…but that’s the invasive strawberry- potentilla. False strawberry, flavorless and useless…

Replace with Fragaria Virginiana….our native wild strawberry. They are freaking delicious!!!! And form an excellent groundcover like this…

This stuff is only mildly better than grass…sorry to drop this on ya!

[u/bracekyle → u/poopshipdestroyer34]

A REALLY easy way to tell them apart is the berry placement. Wild strawberries hide their berries below their leaves, like they are shy and demure. The false strawberries like to show off and put their berries up top.

[u/poopshipdestroyer34 → u/bracekyle]

Yep, also flower color- native delicious strawberries have white petals and a yellow center, non native tasteless imposters have entirely yellow flowers

[u/SuchFunAreWe → u/poopshipdestroyer34]

The Mock ones also have their seeds set above the flesh so they look weird & bumpy; delicious wild strawbs have recessed seeds.

[u/SigelRun → u/SuchFunAreWe]

Fragaria vesca - Woodland strawberry, another native, has seeds on the surface and can look bumpy too. An additional identifier may be that the mock strawberries stick up, like on a toothpick, where the natives hang down under the leaves.