I found the tiniest strawberries today in my garden

I was weeding my very ahem established 'weedery' at the back of my garden today and came across this plant that looks to me like strawberry plant with tiny berries.

Have you ever seen something like this, is this just what strawberries look like when they don't get much sun?

Penny for scale in photo.

 

Wild strawberries. They grow in the hedgerows here. The birds love them.

Fragaria vesca - Wikipedia

 

Lots in our verges too, Sadly all at dog piss height.

 

Similar tiny fruits have been prevalent this year on my 2 varieties - both everbearers. First time in years of growing them that I have noticed this happen. I've put it down to the very warm/hot Spring we have had which has encouraged the flowers but with the extreme dry, many of them don't form norml sized fruit.
I don't know what "wild strawberries" are as such but obviously not the Alpines. If you want to grow the plant on to see if you get any fruit later, dig it up, take the little fruits off, pot up and give it a feed. You never know

 

Thank you all! So it is tiny strawberries, how nice. I might try that, Philippa, it's a bit exposed there which is why I surrounded it with bricks so I don't step on it, so it would be better in a pot.

 

Some people say they're delicious. Mine have less flavour than a cucumber at Christmas.. I pull them out when I can but they get in everywhere.

 

And if you have a day or two to spare, here’s a recipe for wild strawberry jam…

How to make wild strawberry jam | Foraged Foods

 

Interesting BB3. I had been pulling up plants with leaves that looked like that in a nearby flowerbed, thinking they weren't in the strawberry family but a different kind of weed. So if I'd left them maybe I've have lots of these wild strawberry plants. I rather like the look of the tiny berries, though really there are other plants that maybe could use the space better!

 

I love it Tidemark, I would have to find an extremely tiny jam jar for that!

 

They could be false strawberries.
Have you tasted one?
False strawberries have very little flavour and taste slightly of cucumber.
They're not toxic, but they're not very tasty either.

I get them in my garden and they spread quickly unless you whip 'em out.

 

I've never heard of them. That sounds like what I've got. @Pete8

I had a Google. Not really sure. The false one has yellow flowers. Mine are white. Whatever it is, it's a PITA - especially if you're growing potentilla!

 

Also a PITA when they start growing amongst my actual strawberries!

 

Google suggests -

The tiny strawberries with white flowers and a bland or bitter taste are likely mock strawberries (Potentilla indica), also known as Indian strawberries or snakeberries. While they resemble wild strawberries (Fragaria vesca), they are a different species and have a distinct lack of flavor.
Here's why:

• Appearance:
  Mock strawberries have small, red, berry-like fruits and white flowers with five petals, similar to wild strawberries.
• Taste:
  The fruits of mock strawberries are generally considered bland or even bitter, lacking the sweet taste of wild strawberries.
• Wild Strawberries:
  True wild strawberries (Fragaria vesca) also have white flowers and small, red, tasty fruits. They are distinguishable from mock strawberries by the taste of the fruit and sometimes by the appearance of the flowers and leaves.
• Location:
  Mock strawberries are often found in lawns and woodlands, spreading through runners.
• Other names:
  They are also known as false strawberries, or backyard strawberries.

 

I think mine are the mock strawberries due to the way the seeds poke out of the fruit. Haven't tasted them!

 

In one of those bizarre coincidences I just saw some strawberries in the local woods and thought they don't look like normal wild strawberries and now know they are potentilla indica. The berries were very different compared to wilds which I have in our garden.