Yellowflower mock strawberry is a low, creeping plant from Asia with yellow flowers and strawberry-like fruit, so similar to Indian strawberry that it was mistaken for it for decades. It was only recognized as growing wild in the US in 2025 and has been found in at least 16 states in the eastern half of the country. It is also called lesser mock strawberry.
Appearance
- Growth form
- A low, creeping perennial that spreads by rooting at the nodes, forming patches.
- Leaves
- Each leaf has three thin, rounded, yellowish-green leaflets with toothed edges.
- Flowers
- Small yellow five-petaled flowers, about 0.4–0.6 in (1–1.5 cm) across, borne singly among the leaves.
- Flowering time
- In the southeastern US it can flower and fruit from spring into fall.
- Fruit
- A strawberry-like ball about 0.4 in (1 cm) wide with a matte white to pink surface, dotted with wrinkled, bumpy red-brown seedlike fruits.
Look-alikes
Indian strawberry has darker, somewhat thicker green leaves and shiny red fruit with smooth, glossy seeds. Yellowflower mock strawberry has thin yellowish-green leaves and a matte pink or whitish fruit covered with wrinkled seeds.
Why they get mixed upBoth creep by runners and have yellow flowers and the same strawberry-like fruit. Unripe fruit can be hard to tell apart in photos.
Where it lives
- Typical habitats
- Lawns
- Trails and roadsides
- Disturbed ground
- Range
- Native to East and Southeast Asia, from Japan and Korea to China, Taiwan, the Philippines, and Indonesia. In the US it has been found in at least 16 states east of the 100th meridian, from Maine to Texas; the oldest known US specimen was collected in Texas in 1995.
- Preferred conditions
- Grows in sun or partial shade among low lawn plants. It has not been found in the arid West or above about 1,100 ft (337 m) in the US so far.
Life cycle
- Seed dispersal
- In Japan, several kinds of ants carry off the tiny fruits. In the US, lawnmowers and other wheels may also spread it.
Cautions
- Cautions
- The fruit is not poisonous, but it is spongy and nearly tasteless.
Name and classification
- About the name
- Long known as Duchesnea chrysantha. After DNA studies placed the mock strawberries inside Potentilla, it received the new name Potentilla hebiichigo in 2008, taken from its Japanese name. In North America it has often been overlooked or treated as part of Indian strawberry.
Conservation
- IUCN Red List
- NENot EvaluatedNot yet assessed
- Status
- In the US it is a non-native plant, considered rare in the Southeast but likely overlooked because it is so easily confused with Indian strawberry.
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