strawberry tomato

not listed

N5? - Secure

not listed

FACU - Facultative upland

UPL - Obligate Upland

UPL - Obligate upland

Strawberry tomato is a 8″ to 12″ tall, erect, annual forb.

The stems are widely branched from near the base. The upper part of the stem is densely covered with both long, soft, shaggy hairs and sticky, glandular hairs.

The leaves are alternate, thin, stalked, egg-shaped, and 1⅛″ to 2″ long. They are broad and rounded or heart-shaped at the base, and taper to a point at the tip with straight sides along the tip. The margins have a 3 to 4 irregular teeth on each side or are untoothed. The upper and lower surfaces have silky, appressed hairs as well as glandular hairs. The upper surface is green, the lower surface pale green or whitish. When dry they are somewhat translucent.

The inflorescence is single flowers nodding at the end of 3 ⁄16″ to ⅜″ long, glandular-hairy stalks (pedicels) rising from the leaf axils.

The flowers are ¼″ to ⅜″ long and wide. There are 5 pale yellow petals with purple to brown splotches near the center. They are fused into a bell-shaped corolla with 5 shallow lobes.

The fruit is a spherical, berry, green at first, turning yellowish-green at maturity. It is enclosed in an inflated, papery, heart-shaped, 5-angled, ¾″ long husk. The tip of the husk is mostly closed, and the base has a shallow indentation where it connects to the stem. The husk hangs from a pedicel that has elongated to ¾″. The berries are poisonous when green, edible when ripe.

8″ to 12″

Pale yellow with purple to brown centers

Moist. Waste places, fields.

May to September

Sources

2, 3, 4, 29, 30.

Native to eastern North America. Introduced

Uncommon in Minnesota