barren strawberry Interesting Notes

If you are looking for a groundcover that is durable and carefree, Waldsteinia ternata is your plant! Strawberry-like dark green foliage is semi-evergreen and dotted with bright yellow flowers in early to mid spring. Growing only 3”-6” tall, barren strawberry spreads by rhizome over time. It out-competes weeds and spreads non-aggressively. The tough foliage affects a dappled bronze-red coloring in fall, adding to its multi-seasonal appeal.

Waldsteinia ternata is highly adaptable to a wide range of conditions from moist to dry soil and full sun to deep shade. It prefers humus-rich and slightly acidic conditions and is known to do well in tricky locations such as beneath pine trees in the garden. Barren strawberry tolerates drought, deer, heavy clay, light foot traffic, high salinity, and shade.

This plant is a perennial favorite in public gardens where it has been seen as a groundcover beneath plantings of shrubs, deciduous conifers, and along garden borders. It is noted that in the heat and humidity of the Deep South, this plant melts down. Called barren strawberry because of the similarity of the foliage of trifoliate leaves but the small fruit, achenes, are inedible.

Waldsteinia ternata Growing and Maintenance Tips

Easily grown in average, medium, well-drained soil in part shade. Tolerates a wide range of soils; will naturalize via rhizomes. Minimal garden maintenance required.