Native Plants

Q. Who is Mr. Smarty Plants?

A: There are those who suspect Wildflower Center volunteers are the culpable and capable culprits. Yet, others think staff members play some, albeit small, role. You can torture us with your plant questions, but we will never reveal the Green Guru's secret identity.

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Monday - April 30, 2012

From: St Louis, MO
Region: Midwest
Topic: Edible Plants, Poisonous Plants, Herbs/Forbs
Title: Toxicity of barren strawberries
Answered by: Barbara Medford

QUESTION:

Are barren strawberries toxic? .

ANSWER:

Waldsteinia fragarioides (Appalachian barren strawberry) is a member of the Rosaceae family as are the other strawberries, but not the same genus. Following the plant link to our database page, we learned that the fruit is not edible, but no indication of toxicity of that fruit. We went down to the bottom of the webpage to a Google link under Additional Resources to find more information on that plant. From that, we found more more information in this website from the Missouri Botanical Garden on Waldsteinia fragarioides. Looks like it would be a great shady groundcover.

If you are truly concerned, here are several lists of poisonous plants, search on them by the genus name Waldsteinia. Personally, we think our website's comment that they are not edible has to do with texture or taste, not poisonous qualities.

Poisonous Plants of North Carolina

Cornell University Plants Poisonous to Livestock

Canadian Poisonous Plants Information System

University of Pennsylvania's Poisonous Plants

University of Illinois Veterinary Medicine Library Toxic Plants

Toxic Plants of Texas

California Poison Control System

From the Image Gallery

Appalachian barren strawberry
Waldsteinia fragarioides