''Fragaria pentaphylla'' is a

tetraploid Polyploidy is a condition in which the cells of an organism have more than one pair of ( homologous) chromosomes. Most species whose cells have nuclei (eukaryotes) are diploid, meaning they have two sets of chromosomes, where each set contains ...

species of wild strawberry native to

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. In Chinese, it is called the "five-leaf strawberry" ().

Description

Usually 6–15 cm tall, this species usually blooms around April to May, the fruits are ripe by June. Characteristics include: * Thick leaves with 5 leaflets (2 auxiliary leaflets and 3 terminal leaflets) * Hemispheric fruit, sometimes white (f. alba) * Glabrous above, sparsely hairy beneath * Reflexed petals * Flowers mostly in ones or in pairs- rarely in 3's.

Distribution

''Fragaria pentaphylla'' is native to the Chinese provinces of

Sichuan Sichuan (; zh, c=, labels=no, ; zh, p=Sìchuān; alternatively romanized as Szechuan or Szechwan; formerly also referred to as "West China" or "Western China" by Protestant missions) is a province in Southwest China occupying most of the ...

Qinghai Qinghai (; alternately romanized as Tsinghai, Ch'inghai), also known as Kokonor, is a landlocked province in the northwest of the People's Republic of China. It is the fourth largest province of China by area and has the third smallest po ...

Gansu Gansu (, ; alternately romanized as Kansu) is a province in Northwest China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeast part of the province. The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibet ...

Shanxi Shanxi (; ; formerly romanised as Shansi) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China and is part of the North China region. The capital and largest city of the province is Taiyuan, while its next most populated prefecture-lev ...

and

Henan Henan (; or ; ; alternatively Honan) is a landlocked province of China, in the central part of the country. Henan is often referred to as Zhongyuan or Zhongzhou (), which literally means "central plain" or "midland", although the name is al ...

. It is most often found on forests, forest clearings, scrub, mountain meadows, and open gravels at elevations of 1000–2700 m.

Cultivation

This species is rare, (if at all) in cultivation.

Commercial value

This plant has little or no commercial value. However, with chromosome doubling, this plant can be bred with ''

Fragaria × ananassa The garden strawberry (or simply strawberry; ''Fragaria × ananassa'') is a widely grown hybrid species of the genus '' Fragaria'', collectively known as the strawberries, which are cultivated worldwide for their fruit. The fruit is widely ap ...

'', the garden strawberry, possibly introducing new traits, such as disease resistance or new flavors (especially f. ''alba'') to cultivated strawberries.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15283754 pentaphylla