Potentilla anserina |
Potentilla fragiformis |
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common silverweed, Pacific cinquefoil, silver weed cinquefoil, silverweed |
strawberry cinquefoil |
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Habit | Plants tufted to cushion-forming; caudex branches short, stout, diam. 1–1.5(–2) cm, including old leaf bases. | |||||||||||||
Stems | ascending to erect, 0.3–1.5(–2) dm, lengths 1–2 times basal leaves. |
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Basal leaves | petiole (0.5–)1–15(–25) cm, long hairs absent or sparse to dense, 1.5–3.5 mm; larger leaflets (0.4–)0.5–5(–7) × (0.2–)0.3–2(–3) cm, surfaces: abaxial with long hairs absent or sparse to abundant, not restricted to veins, 0.5–2(–2.5) mm, cottony-crisped hairs usually dense or usually absent (in subsp. groenlandica), adaxial with long hairs absent or sparse to abundant, cottony-crisped hairs usually absent, sometimes sparse to common (especially subsp. yukonensis). |
not in ranks, ternate, (1–)4–10(–15) cm; stipules: apex acute to obtuse; petiole (0.3–)2–11(–13) cm, long hairs abundant, ascending to spreading, 1–2.3 mm, soft, glands sparse to common; leaflets 3, central obovate, 0.7–2.5 × 0.5–1.6 cm, petiolule 0–1 mm, margins revolute, not lobed, distal 1/2–2/3 evenly incised ± 1/3 to midvein, teeth 2–3(–4) per side, surfaces ± similar, green (paler abaxially), hairs common, 1–1.5 mm, glands common (sparser adaxially). |
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Inflorescences | 1–3-flowered. |
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Pedicels | straight, 0.5–2 cm in flower, to 3.5 cm in fruit. |
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Flowers | epicalyx bractlets narrowly to broadly ovate-triangular or linear to elliptic, (2–)2.5–7(–8) × (0.3–)0.5–3(–3.5) mm, often 2-fid or dentate; sepals (3–)3.5–7(–9) mm, apex subacute to acuminate; petals (4–)5–15(–20) × (2.5–)3–10(–12) mm; filaments (1–)2.5–3.5(–4.5) mm, anthers 0.7–1.3 mm; carpels (10–)20–200(–250). |
epicalyx bractlets oblong, 3–7 × 1.2–2.5 mm, margins revolute; hypanthium 4–6 mm diam.; sepals 4–6(–7) mm, apex broadly acute to obtuse; petals yellow, 9–12 × 8–10 mm; filaments (2–)2.8–3.2 mm, anthers 0.5–0.8 mm; carpels 40–50, styles filiform, not or scarcely papillate-swollen proximally, 1.7–2 mm. |
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Achenes | 2 mm. |
1.3–1.5. |
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2n | = 42, 56 (Russian Far East). |
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Potentilla anserina |
Potentilla fragiformis |
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Phenology | Flowering late spring–summer. | |||||||||||||
Habitat | Leymus-Potentilla sand dunes, coastal gravel bars, beach ridges | |||||||||||||
Elevation | 0–10 m (0–0 ft) | |||||||||||||
Distribution |
AK; AZ; CA; CO; CT; IA; ID; IL; IN; MA; ME; MI; MN; MT; ND; NE; NH; NM; NV; NY; OH; OR; RI; SD; UT; VT; WA; WI; WY; AB; BC; MB; NB; NL; NS; NT; NU; ON; PE; QC; SK; YT; Mexico; South America (Argentina, Chile); Eurasia; Pacific Islands (New Guinea, New Zealand); s Australia
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AK; e Asia (Russian Far East) |
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Discussion | Subspecies 4 or 5 (4 in the flora). Potentilla anserina is polymorphic in most features, especially in hairiness, but also in size and in degree of dissection of leaflets, epicalyx bractlets, and sepals. While most of the variation described by A. G. Blytt (1906) is taxonomically insignificant, A. Rousi (1965) found support for three northern races: subspp. anserina, egedei, and pacifica. He also suggested that P. yukonensis Hultén might qualify as a separate subspecies. This treatment follows J. Soják (1994) in accepting four northern subspecies of P. anserina, all present in North America. A. Rousi (1965) demonstrated partial interfertility between the races of Potentilla anserina, which form intermediates in all zones of contact. The distinctness of the four races, in spite of intermediates, is upheld by being partly allopatric and occupying different habitats where they are sympatric. As partly interfertile parapatric entities, they are best treated as subspecies. The vast majority of chromosome counts are tetraploid. Tetraploid plants (2n = 28) are fully fertile; hexaploids (2n = 42) are largely pollen and seed sterile; pentaploids (2n = 35) are probably occasional hybrids (S. Erlandsson 1942, 1942b; A. Rousi 1965). A. Kurtto et al. (in J. Jalas et al. 1972+, vol. 13) considered numbers above tetraploid level as cases of occasional autopolyploidy. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Recent collections of Potentilla fragiformis in Alaska on the coast of the Bering and Chukchi seas have confirmed historical reports (P. A. Rydberg 1908d) of this Beringian species in North America. Dwarf plants from St. Lawrence Island are somewhat intermediate to P. nana but have the larger petals and longer styles of P. fragiformis. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 9, p. 127. | FNA vol. 9, p. 191. | ||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Rosaceae > subfam. Rosoideae > tribe Potentilleae > Potentilla > sect. Pentaphylloides | Rosaceae > subfam. Rosoideae > tribe Potentilleae > Potentilla > sect. Aureae | ||||||||||||
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Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||||||
Synonyms | Argentina anserina | |||||||||||||
Name authority | Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 1: 495. (1753) | D. F. K. Schlechtendal: Ges. Naturf. Freunde Berlin Mag. Neuesten Entdeck. Gesammten Naturk. 7: 294. (1816) | ||||||||||||
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