No matter how large and luscious a garden strawberry is, somehow its aroma cannot begin to compare with that of the Wild Strawberry growing in a sunny woodland clearing.

As the scientific name indicates, Sweet Woodruff is a truly aromatic plant. The odour of the drying top parts is caused chiefly by glycosides of a crystalline substance called coumarin, which is also found in numerous grasses.

The smell of coumarin is the characteristic scent of hay, and it is this aromatic quality which has led to the use of coumarin in the manufacture of tobacco.

This is a substance which can be used medicinally to reduce the clotting properties of blood. Excessive use of the drug may cause poisoning and even death; in small doses, however, it has a sedative effect. The top parts of the plant are also used as an aromatic in the home production of liqueurs.

Sweet Woodruff has leaves arranged in whorls. The lowest usually consist of six to seven leaves, those at the top of the stems of eight or nine. The stem is four-angled, erect, hairless, and smooth. The leaves are deep green but turn darker in dry weather, which is when the odour of coumarin is most marked. This perennial herb, about 10-30 cm high, has long rhizomes which enable it to multiply by vegetative means.

However, there is one thing all three have in common - the real fruit of the strawberry is not the berry itself, the fleshy receptacle, but the small achenes which project from and cover its entire surface.