Strawberry Indian Duchesnea Indica Tuttifrutti is a herbaceous perennial herb that is native to Himalayas, China, and Japan but naturalized throughout the United States. Also known as Mock Strawberry, False Strawberry or Potentilla Indica, and easily grown from Strawberry Indian seeds, Duchesnea Indica Tuttifrutti a fast-spreading, creeping, evergreen ground cover plant that forms a dense mat of light green foliage with finely haired leaves and blooms with lovely, 5 petaled, tiny yellow flowers for most of the season continuously producing showy, small, 1/2 inch, red Strawberry fruits that look fabulous and they are edible, but the taste is not noteworthy. The Mock Strawberry flowers attract pollinators including bees, and birds love its fruits.
Strawberry Indian makes a great perennial evergreen ground cover, and once established this creeping plant spreads very fast by runners to set new plants at no time. Mock Strawberry also popular for growing in containers, over the walls, woodlands, grassy slopes, and rock gardens, or as an ornamental houseplant. Duchesnea Indica seeds should be sown on soil surface and not covered but just slightly pressed into the soil, and Indian Strawberry prefers a moist, but well-drained soil in a partially sunny position; however, the plant tolerates drought and full shade. The leaves of Mock Strawberry are edible as pot herb or the can be used in cooking. The entire Duchesnea Indica plant is medicinal as an anticoagulant, antiseptic, depurative (purifier) and febrifuge (fever reducer,) and it can be used for stomatitis (an inflammation of the mucus lining), laryngitis, and acute tonsillitis, or the fresh leaves can be crushed and applied externally as a soft and moist mass and used as the treatment of boils and abscesses, burns, weeping eczema, ringworm, snake and insect bites and traumatic injuries. The Indian Strawberry can also cure skin diseases.
PLANT PROFILE
Season: Perennial
Height: 4 Inches
Bloom Season: Spring/Summer/Fall
Environment: Sun/Partial Shade/Full Shade
Soil Type: Average/Poor/Sandy/Clay/Dry/Moist well-drained, pH 5.8-7.2
USDA Zones: 3-9
PLANTING INSTRUCTIONS
Sow Indoors: Winter/Spring (6-8 weeks before last frost)
Sow Outdoors: Spring
Seed Depth: Surface sowing - press seeds slightly into the soil
Germination Time: 42-54 Days
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