Potentilla arenosa |
Potentilla sterilis |
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strawberry leaf cinquefoil or barren-strawberry, strawberryleaf cinquefoil |
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Habit | Plants scarcely to ± tufted. | |||||
Caudex branches | thick, not columnar, not sheathed with marcescent whole leaves. |
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Stems | ascending to erect, (0.3–)0.8–2.5(–4.5) dm, lengths (2–)3–5 times basal leaves. |
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Basal leaves | 1.5–12(–20) cm; petiole 1–7(–15) cm, long hairs sparse to abundant, spreading to ± ascending, rarely loosely appressed, 1–2(–2.5) mm, usually stiff, sometimes weak (subsp. chamissonis), verrucose, short and/or crisped hairs absent or sparse to abundant, cottony hairs absent, glands absent or sparse; leaflets separate to ± overlapping, central obovate, 1–3.5(–4.5) × 0.5–2(–3) cm, usually petiolulate, petiolule to 5 mm, base cuneate, margins slightly revolute, distal ± 3/4 incised ± 1/2 to midvein, teeth (2–)3–4(–6) per side, ± approximate to distant, surfaces dissimilar, often strongly so, abaxial white to gray, long hairs 0.5–1.8 mm, cottony-crisped hairs ± dense, adaxial green, sometimes grayish green, long hairs sparse to abundant, short-crisped hairs sparse to abundant. |
petiole 2–7(–17) cm, long hairs common to abundant, 1–2 mm; central leaflets (0.8–)1.5–3(–5) × (0.6–)1–2(–3) cm, straight hairs common to abundant (sparser adaxially), glands absent or sparse. |
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Cauline leaves | (0–)1–2. |
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Inflorescence | 1–7(–15)-flowered. |
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Pedicels | 1.5–5 cm in flower, to 6(–10) cm in fruit. |
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Flowers | epicalyx bractlets linear-lanceolate to lanceolate-elliptic, 2–5(–7) × 0.4–1.2(–1.5) mm, 1/4–1/2 as wide as sepals, margins usually flat, red glands absent or sparse and inconspicuous; hypanthium 3–5 mm diam.; sepals 3–6(–8) mm, apex acute; petals 4–7(–10) × 4–7(–9) mm, ± longer than sepals; filaments 0.8–1 mm, anthers 0.4 mm; carpels 28–40, apical hairs absent, styles conic-columnar, strongly papillate-swollen in proximal 1/5–1/3, 1–1.5 mm. |
epicalyx bractlets ± lanceolate, 2.5–4 × 0.8–1.3 mm; sepals 4–6.5 mm, apex ± acute; petals 4–7 × 3–5 mm; filaments 0.8–2 mm, anthers 0.6–0.9 mm; carpels numerous. |
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Achenes | 1.1 mm. |
1.5 mm. |
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2n | = 28 (Europe). |
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Potentilla arenosa |
Potentilla sterilis |
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Phenology | Flowering spring. | |||||
Habitat | Dry to moist, often rocky slopes | |||||
Elevation | 0 m (0 ft) | |||||
Distribution |
AK; AB; BC; MB; NT; NU; QC; SK; YT; Eurasia |
NF; Europe [Introduced in North America] |
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Discussion | Subspecies 2 (2 in the flora). The name Potentilla arenosa is now used for most arctic and subarctic plants previously treated as P. hookeriana or P. nivea subsp. hookeriana (Lehmann) Hiitonen. As noted by J. Soják (1986), the type of P. hookeriana has quinate leaves; that name is now restricted to a Rocky Mountain species in sect. Rubricaules. The arctic and subarctic material was briefly (1989–1999) called P. nivea, as discussed under that species. Because the type of P. nivea var. arenosa and other northern Asian specimens correspond closely to the North American plants, the name P. arenosa is assigned here. The two subspecies differ only in one character, the petiole hairs, but are largely allopatric. Subspecies arenosa occurs in western and northern Greenland, northern North America (very northern in the east), and northern Asia (and perhaps northeasternmost European Russia); subsp. chamissonis occurs in southern Greenland, northeastern North America (more southern than subsp. arenosa), and northern Europe at least east to the Urals. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Potentilla sterilis was collected from the coast of Newfoundland in 1928 (A. M. Ayre s.n., GH); no recent documentation of occurrence is known (J. Maunder, pers. comm. to L. Brouillet). Although previously treated as native (M. L. Fernald 1950; E. Hultén and M. Fries 1986), this status has been challenged (for example, A. Kurtto et al. in J. Jalas et al. 1972+, vol. 13). According to H. A. Gleason and A. Cronquist (1991), the species is also rarely introduced in the eastern United States; no vouchers have been seen. Potentilla sterilis is superficially similar to strawberry (Fragaria) but lacks the fleshy fruit; other differences include stolon structure, anther morphology, and style length and attachment. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 9, p. 200. | FNA vol. 9, p. 132. | ||||
Parent taxa | Rosaceae > subfam. Rosoideae > tribe Potentilleae > Potentilla > sect. Niveae | Rosaceae > subfam. Rosoideae > tribe Potentilleae > Potentilla > sect. Lupinoides | ||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||
Synonyms | P. nivea var. arenosa | Fragaria sterilis | ||||
Name authority | (Turczaninow) Juzepczuk: in V. L. Komarov et al., Fl. URSS 10: 137. (1941) | (Linnaeus) Garcke: Fl. N. Mitt.-Deutschland ed. 4, 112. (1858) | ||||
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