Woodland types of wild strawberries are properly classified as Fragaria vesca var vesca. They produce runners and grow best in light to moderate shade. They are June bearing types that produce one spring crop.

Vilmorin-Andrieux (1885) makes a distinction between Wild or Wood Strawberries (Fragaria vesca) and Alpine Strawberries (Fragaria alpina), a distinction which is not made by most seed companies or nurseries, which usually sell Fragaria vesca as "Alpine strawberry". We agree with this classification and follow it when classifying and discussing cultivars.

Under "Wild or Wood Strawberry" he says:

It has seldom been seen in gardens since the introduction of the Red Alpine Strawberry. ... Wood Strawberry possesses a quite particular perfume and delicacy of flavour.

Under "Alpine Strawberry" he says:

A very different plant to the Wood Strawberry, and distinguished by the greater size of all its parts — the fruit in particular — and especially by the property (which is particular to it) of producing flowers and fruit continuously all through the summer. ... The fruit has nearly the same appearance and flavour as that of the Wood Strawberry, but is generally larger, longer, and more pointed in shape. The seed is also perceptibly larger and longer.