Virginia strawberry is native to all Canadian provinces and to every US state. It grows in moderate to cool climates in sun or part shade, favouring well-drained sandy loam. Bees, flies and ants visit the flowers, and bears, mice, raccoons and others eat the fruit and spread the seed. It spreads by seed and by runners that form clumped patches.
It was one of the parents of the modern garden strawberry. The cultivated strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa) came from a cross of Fragaria virginiana, brought from Virginia to Europe, with Chilean strawberry. Its botanical authority is disputed between Philip Miller (1768) and Antoine Duchesne (1766). Haudenosaunee tradition calls it the leader of the berries because it ripens first.