Beach Strawberry
a seaside delight
The beach or coastal strawberry (Fragaria chiloensis), is a maritime perennial which inhabits many of our coastal beaches! Actually it can be found from the Aleutian Islands and Alaska to California and on southward to the Pacific coastal area of South America.
A true ground hugger, the plants will most often be only an inch or so tall. But once they catch our attention, we note that they have attractive shiny dark green thrice-parted leaves - leaves which are hairy and grayish on the lower side, and lovely, showy, white, five-petaled flowers. Connected by hairy runners, even we who are novice or nongardeners have little trouble recognizing the plant as a strawberry, for they are distinctly strawberry-like in appearance.
The adaptable rough little plant thrives in various conditions: full sun or partial shade, rocky or sandy places, and is drought tolerant. It further has the ability to spread rapidly and is able to bear a fair amount of foot traffic.
If you think it sounds like a good ground cover for a home garden - bingo! You're on the money. It will indeed do well - is desirable in home plant growing spots and rock or herb gardens in our part of the world, even in places far from its native marine habitat.
Small rooted cuttings are great starters, and sandy, well-drained soil their habitat of choice. Cuttings can be placed in a four inch planting pot, soil not too rich, in the spring. If then planted about a foot and one half apart, their runners will spread rapidly and can fill in a sizable area after just one growing season as each plant can produce eight or more runners and hence new plants by mid-summer.
The plants will probably be taller in a home garden, perhaps up to eight or ten inches. And when concentrated you'll be more apt to detect their fragrance as both leaves and stems emit a delightful fruity odor.
Do the diminutive berries taste good? You bet. Those huge, sometimes nearly tasteless domesticated items sold as strawberries in supermarkets don't compare with these wild little counterparts. Absolutely delicious. And interestingly, some of those hybrid cultivated berries were originally derived from the coastal berry. Some find a homebrewed wild strawberry tea one "to die for". But don't be surprised if birds, mice, and squirrels are attracted to and will compete for the small berries produced.
So look for and admire the blossoms of the strawberries in a beach locale now, and you may decide that driftwood pieces and/or rocks and beach strawberries are an ornamental presentation worthy of consideration.
Pat Nash
Beach Watcher
Class of '94