STRAWBERRY LEAVES

Fragaria vesca, commonly known as woodland strawberry occurs naturally throughout the Northern Hemisphere. Other names for this species include fraises des bois, wild (European) strawberry, European strawberry and alpine strawberry (the latter usually refers to the cultivated varieties of the ever bearing type). Woodland strawberry fruit is strongly flavored, and is still collected and grown for domestic use and on a small scale commercially for the use of gourmets and as an ingredient for commercial jam, sauces, liqueurs, cosmetics and alternative medicine. In Turkey hundreds of tons of wild fruit are harvested annually, mainly for export. Most of the cultivated varieties have a long flowering period (and have been considered by botanists as belonging to Fragaria vesca var. vesca ssp. semperflorens). They are usually called alpine strawberries. They either form runners or multiple crowns in a cluster, fruit over a very long period with larger fruit than the common wood strawberry, and are usually propagated by seeds or division of the plants. Their fruit are usually much larger than that of the wild form. Large-fruiting forms are known since the 18th century and were called "Fressant" in France [4]. Some cultivars have fruit that are white or yellow when fully ripe, instead of the normal red.