For those who dwell just about anyplace in the USA, likelihood is you’ve seen these tiny, cute little strawberries peek up their heads throughout your yard when summer season comes.
You, like me, in all probability even have fond childhood reminiscences of choosing a number of and consuming them along with your mother and father. What a novelty that was!
However what you would possibly not know is that these little purple strawberry look-alikes aren’t actual strawberries. They’re correctly known as “mock strawberries,” for apparent causes!
However contemplating they aren’t strawberries in any respect, I assume we had higher ask: are mock strawberries edible, and protected?
Sure, mock strawberries are fit for human consumption and fully edible however they don’t style superb, and so they aren’t very nutritious in comparison with precise wild and home strawberries.
Nicely, that’s good to know as a result of I ate bunches of this stuff after I was a child. In case you have any mock strawberries rising in your property or when you discover any rising out within the wilderness in your travels, you possibly can seize them and chow down on them as a protected snack.
Nevertheless, there’s much more you’ll have to find out about these attention-grabbing plans earlier than you do, so preserve studying…
What are Mock Strawberries?
The mock strawberry, Potentilla indica, or generally also called the Indian strawberry, yard strawberries or, erroneously as wild strawberries, are a flowering plant that’s mostly present in North America, and one which has a composite accent fruit that’s fairly comparable in look and performance to a true strawberry.
They’re generally thought of an invasive plant or a pesky weed, however most of the time, they’re simply an attention-grabbing and festive herald of heat, summertime climate.
What Do Mock Strawberries Look Like?
Mock strawberries are low-growing, upturned crops that sprout from runners. They’ve trifoliate, roughly toothed and veiny leaves that function a crown for a small, dense and “pebbly” fruit that comprises many seeds distributed throughout its floor. The fruits are not often bigger than a marble and sometimes a lot smaller.
The flowers of the plant are yellow, first showing within the springtime after which showing sporadically all through the rising season which lasts by means of the summer season.
The flowers are yellow all through with 5 petals and a bristly, brush-like heart surrounded by a fringe of taller stamens.
Telling Mock and Wild Strawberries Aside
Mock strawberries are generally confused for true wild strawberries, Fragaria vesca, and fortuitously each are edible.
The best technique to inform mock strawberries and wild strawberries aside is thru the flowers and the fruits: Mock strawberries have a smaller, denser fruit that has a distinctly bumpy or pebbly floor.
In distinction, a real wild strawberry is commonly considerably bigger and the seeds, although distinct, are embedded extra within the floor making it smoother to the contact regardless that it nonetheless has a definite texture.
Then there may be the matter of the flowers: mock strawberries have brilliant yellow flowers which might be yellow all through, whereas wild strawberries have white or faintly pink flowers that is perhaps tinted on the margins and edges. Simple sufficient!
Additionally, the expansion behavior of every plant will give them away, with wild strawberries tending to develop considerably taller however the berries themselves droop or develop downward that means they hold from beneath the plant because it curls over.
Mock strawberries at all times stick up proudly or else solely tilting over at a slight angle, making them a lot simpler to identify. You may need to look more durable to identify the berries of untamed strawberries since they could possibly be hidden by their foliage!
How Do Mock Strawberries Odor?
One other giveaway between mock strawberries and the real article: mock strawberries have mainly no perfume in any respect, even when ripe, apart from a faint “grass” aroma. Strawberries, then again, have that distinct and unmistakable scent which is so cherished the world over.
Are Mock Strawberries Good to Eat?
Some individuals suppose so, and in any case they don’t style unhealthy. At worst, they’ve a considerably bland or tasteless taste.
At finest, they’ve a vaguely tangy or fruity taste that has typically been in contrast favorably to numerous sorts of melon. Sadly, they don’t actually style like strawberries in any respect! You’ll simply have to choose them and discover out for your self.
Additionally, the opposite elements of the plant, together with the stems and leaves, are edible and the flowers are generally utilized in numerous natural teas and tinctures.
Mock strawberries supposedly have numerous health-boosting advantages in keeping with numerous colleges of conventional medication, however fashionable science to this point has not backed these claims up.
Are Mock Strawberries Nutritious?
Considerably, however their vitamin doesn’t stack up favorably with different fruits or with true wild or home strawberries. They’ve some energy and are a marginal supply of carbohydrates owing to their sugars, and likewise a good supply of vitamin A and vitamin C.
Be aware that, owing to their pronounced lack of recognition as produce they haven’t been extensively analyzed for dietary content material, although it’s recognized they’re fully fit for human consumption.
Watch out for Any Mock Strawberries that May Have Been Handled with Chemical compounds
Now, mock strawberries are themselves fit for human consumption however that doesn’t imply the actual ones you’re considering choosing are fit for human consumption!
It’s because the crops are thought of a nuisance and even an invasive species in some areas and so is perhaps subjected to devoted efforts to eradicate them by means of using herbicides.
Additionally, as a result of they’re so generally present in lawns across the nation they could possibly be by the way contaminated with all kinds of issues, from fertilizers and weed killers to numerous pesticides and soil conditioners.
And it isn’t out of the query that ones rising close to the perimeters of farmlands and on the perimeters of roads could possibly be contaminated with all kinds of stuff, from heavy metals present in exhaust to hazardous runoff from farms and industrial areas.
None of those contaminants are good in your well being, so when you aren’t fully positive of the standing of the mock strawberries you’re contemplating consuming, or if you realize that you’ve got handled your garden with numerous chemical substances, it’s finest to go on them…
You gained’t be lacking out on a lot contemplating their paltry dietary content material. Higher protected than sorry!
