Wild Strawberry Tea

Indian Strawberry (Duchesnea Indica)

You may notice new strawberry plants spreading through your property. Check them carefully -- if they have yellow flowers and hollow, tasteless berries, they are Indian Strawberry. Our native strawberries have white flowers and if the birds don't eat them first, and there are any left for you to try, they are tiny and sweet.

Indian Strawberry is beginnng to spread in Riverwoods. Once it takse hold, it becomes difficult to remove, so pull them or treat them with RoundUp® as soon as you find them. This is not a good groundcover!

Indian Strawberry is on the Chicago Botanic Garden list of invasive plants in the midwest. Check out their site to see the other plants listed.

A flavor somewhat like a water melon according to some people, it does contain constituents such as sugar, protein, and ascorbic acid (vitamin C), leaves also edible as pot herb. The whole plant is medicinal as an anticoagulant, antiseptic, depurative and febrifuge. Herb can be used in a decoction for stomatitis, laryngitis, and acute tonsilitis, or the fresh leaves can be crushed and applied externally as a medicinal poultice. It is used in the treatment of boils and abcesses, burns, weeping eczema, ringworm, snake and insect bites and traumatic injuries. A decoction of the leaves is medicinal and used in the treatment of swellings. An infusion of the flowers is used to activate the blood circulation and the fruit is used to cure skin diseases. Indian Strawberry is used extensively in China as a medicinal herb and is being studied for its ability to stop the HIV virus and some forms of cancer from spreading through the body.