WILDFLOWERS OF NEW MEXICO

Spreading by runners (stolons), this 2–8-inch high, prostrate plant is unmistakeable when the red fruit are ripe. Note the white flowers with numerous yellow stamens, the palmate leaves with three leaflets with distinct veins and coarse teeth, the terminal tooth usually equal or longer than adjacent teeth, and the flower stem longer than the leaves and with silky hairs.

FLOWERS: May–July. Clusters of 3–15 flowers, each with 5 white petals, oval with a narrow base, 3/8-inch long (8 mm), and numerous showy, yellow stamens, flower stem usually equals or surpasses the leaves. Fruit red, fleshy, 3/8-inch wide (1 cm), edible, seeds on surface, not in tiny pits.

LEAVES: Basal. Leaves with three leaflets spreading from tip of 1–7-inch long (3–18 cm) stem (petiole) covered with spreading hairs; leaflets stemless, blades oval, 1–2 3/8-inches long (3–6 cm), veins distinctly prominent, surfaces (especially lower) hairy, margins coarsely toothed, the terminal tooth usually equal or longer than adjacent teeth.

HABITAT: Moist sandy, gravelly soils, shady woods, meadows; ponderosa, aspen-Douglas fir, spruce-fir forests.

ELEVATION: 7,000–10,800 feet.

RANGE: Rocky Mountain states and westward, northern coniferous forests east to Atlantic.

SIMILAR SPECIES: The look-alike Virginia Strawberry, F. virginiana in much the same range and habitats, has leaflets with obscure veins, the middle leaflet with a short stem and the terminal tooth usually shorter than the adjacent teeth, the flower stems shorter than leaves and with flat-lying hairs, and seeds in tiny pits.

NM COUNTIES: Widespread in NM mountains in moist high-elevation habitats: Bernalillo, Catron, Cibola, Colfax, Grant, Los Alamos, McKinley, Mora, Rio Arriba, San Juan, San Miguel, Sandoval, Santa Fe, Sierra, Socorro, Taos, Torrance, Valencia.