strawberry, fruit plant of eight main species of the genus Fragaria (family Rosaceae), native to the temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere but widely cultivated in the Southern Hemisphere as well. The cultivated varieties are mainly derived from two species, F. virginiana and F. chiloensis, that are native to the Americas. The strawberry is a low-growing, herbaceous plant with a fibrous root system and a crown from which arise basal leaves. The leaves are compound, with three leaflets, sawtooth-edged and hairy. The flowers, generally white, rarely reddish, are borne in small clusters on slender stalks arising, like the surface-creeping stems, from the axils of the leaves. As a plant ages, the root system becomes woody, and the “mother” crown sends out runners that touch ground and root, thus enlarging the plant.