Wild and cultivated strawberries

In late May, just before leaving on our long car drive north to the Gaspe Peninsula, I feasted on ripe wild strawberry (Fragaria virginiana) fruits (yum!) in our hometown of Asheville, North Carolina. Yesterday morning, nearly six weeks later, my partner and I encountered a nice patch of wild strawberry plants growing in Bic National Park, Quebec Province,  in the far northern Appalachian Mountains. We looked for fruits but only found flowers. Presumably, this reflects the very long winter here resulting in a much delayed start to the growing season. We did however manage to satisfy our strawberry craving - locally grown cultivated strawberries are currently available at the grocery store in Bic. An aside.... while cultivated strawberry fruits are bigger than wild strawberry fruits (due to plant breeding), they typically aren't as sweet. So, if you have not foraged for wild strawberries, you're missing out!

Wild strawberry flowering on July 8

Locally grown cultivated strawberries now available at grocery store

Addendum: Today, July 10, while hiking in Bic National Park in an early successional field I again came across a patch of wild strawberry (Fragaria) which was fruiting (no flowers, the fairly sparse fruits were very small but very sweet).

Wild strawberry plant seen in fruit on July 10 in sunny open habitat (field)