This is a pretty little wildflower with five-petalled 10–15 mm white flowers and bluish green trefoil leaves. It grows by dry woodland and on grassy banks. This plant is quite similar to the Wild Strawberry, but it is easy to tell them apart by the following differences – in the Barren Strawberry the flower blooms much earlier (from March to June), its five white petals are separated by wide gaps which allow the sepals to be seen, the hair on the underside of leaf is not flattened and the stems don't root. Also the terminal tooth on the end leaflet is shorter than those either side of it whereas with Wild Strawberry it is longer. But the biggest difference of all is in the fruit which never becomes a succulent red berry, rather it is dry and inedible. This is a native plant belonging to the Rosaceae family.
I first realised that this was not Wild Strawberry when I found it in Ballyvaughan, Co Clare in 1979. I photographed it at Wellingtonbridge, Co Wexford in 2006 and 2010.
If you are satisfied you have correctly identified this plant, please submit your sighting to the National Biodiversity Data Centre
