The creeping runners occasionally produce roots and inflorescences at the leaf bases. The ripe fruit is 1 to 2 inches long and light red to dark red when ripe. It is an ovoid aggregate of achenes or one-seeded fruitless around a receptacle that accumulates sugars and vitamins and ripens like a true, fleshy fruit. Each achene contains a single ovule and can therefore be considered an individual unit. Yet, if the stigma of the achene is not pollinated or if it is removed soon after pollination, there is no growth on the receptacle.
Reproduction is almost exclusively with rooted runners, even though the seeds are viable.
The strawberry flower cluster is a series of double-branching parts bearing a flower in the crotch of each branch. The flower in the first crotch is termed the primary flower, the two in the next two crotches are termed secondary flowers, the next four are tertiary flowers, the next eight are the quarternary, and the next 16, if they develop, are the quinary flowers. When the stamens contain viable pollen, they are a deep gold. Nectar is secreted by the receptacle and held at the base of the stamens next to the outer row of pistils. The flowers of all current commercial cultivars are hermaphrodite.