What is mock strawberry?

Mock strawberry is a low, creeping perennial from Asia that looks a lot like a strawberry plant. Simple mock strawberry identification comes down to two things: it has yellow flowers instead of white, and its bright red berries are almost flavorless.

It spreads by runners that root as they crawl across the ground, so a single plant can turn into a thick mat over a season or two. It’s most at home in shady, moist lawns where grass is already thin.

Mock strawberry isn’t on Pennsylvania’s noxious weed list, and it isn’t harmful. It’s mainly a lawn weed that fills in where turf struggles.

Mock strawberry identification: what to look for

Mock strawberry hugs the ground, usually only a few inches tall. Check these features:

• Leaves: three toothed, slightly hairy leaflets on long stalks, much like a garden strawberry.
• Flowers: yellow with five petals, about half an inch across, each on its own stalk.
• Berries: small, round and bright red, studded with raised red seeds, and held upright rather than hanging down.
• Runners: thin stems creep across the soil and root at each joint, forming new plants.
• Season: stays green from early spring until hard frost, often longer in mild winters.

Where it grows in Pennsylvania

Mock strawberry thrives in shade and damp soil. Around central PA, you’ll find it in lawns under big trees, along north-facing foundations, on the shady edges of wooded lots, in landscape beds and along stream banks.

It tolerates close mowing, so it can fill a whole section of lawn without you noticing until the berries show up. It’s especially common in spots that stay wet after rain, such as low areas on heavy clay soil where turf thins out.

Because birds eat the berries, new plants also turn up in odd places, like under a bird feeder, along a fence line or in the middle of a mulched bed. Those scattered single plants are the easiest ones to deal with, so pull them when you see them.

Mock strawberry look-alikes

Native wild strawberry is the main look-alike. Wild strawberry has white flowers, sweet berries that hang down, and seeds sunk into tiny pits on the berry surface. If the flowers are yellow, it’s mock strawberry.

Common cinquefoil has similar yellow flowers but five leaflets and no berries. White clover and yellow wood sorrel also have three leaflets, but clover leaflets are smooth-edged with white ball flowers, and wood sorrel leaflets are heart-shaped and fold up at night.

How to get rid of mock strawberry

Mock strawberry takes persistence. Its runners root everywhere they touch, so any piece left behind can start a new plant.

• Hand pulling: in beds and small lawn patches, pulling works if you get the runners and the little root clusters at each joint. Moist soil after a rain makes this much easier. Follow each runner back to its source.
• Weeding tools: a narrow hand weeder helps lift the rooted crowns without tearing them off at the surface.
• Mulch beds: two to three inches of mulch makes it hard for runners to root, and the ones that do are easy to pull.

Cultural control. Mock strawberry wins where grass loses. Improve light by thinning low tree limbs, overseed thin spots with shade-tolerant grasses in early fall, and mow at a taller setting. Water deeply but less often instead of every day, and core-aerate compacted soil. Where a low spot stays soggy, improving surface drainage gives the lawn a better chance. In deep shade where grass simply won’t grow, consider a mulched bed or shade groundcover instead.

Chemical control. In lawns, selective broadleaf herbicides containing 2,4-D, MCPP (mecoprop), dicamba or triclopyr are the ones extension services commonly name. Apply them while plants are actively growing, and expect to need more than one treatment. Early fall is usually the most effective time, with a follow-up in spring. Avoid dicamba products over the root zones of trees and shrubs, since roots can take it up. Read and follow the label, which is the law, and confirm the product is labeled for your lawn type or beds. Applying herbicides for hire in Pennsylvania requires a PA Department of Agriculture pesticide applicator certification, so a full lawn program belongs with a licensed lawn-care company.

Keeping it from coming back

Birds and other animals eat the berries and drop seeds, so new plants will show up from time to time. The difference is whether your lawn is thick enough to keep them from spreading.

Check shady areas each spring and fall and pull new plants before their runners take off. Keep beds well mulched, and keep turf healthy with the right grass for the site, a taller mowing height and better light where you can manage it.

Edging between lawn and beds also helps, since runners love to creep from turf into mulch and back again. A clean cut edge or a border along the bed line makes stray runners easy to spot and pull.

Questions we get about mock strawberry

Similar weeds

Creeping Charlie (Ground Ivy)Glechoma hederaceaWild VioletViola sororiaYellow Wood SorrelOxalis stricta