Flora of North America species comparison

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Potentilla sect. Rectae
Habit Perennials, 1-stemmed to ± tufted, not stoloniferous; taproots not fleshy-thickened, often giving rise to ± thickened lateral roots; vestiture of well-differentiated long and short hairs, glands common to abundant, not red.
Stems

erect, not flagelliform, not rooting at nodes, from centers of ephemeral basal rosettes, 1.5–7 dm, lengths (2–)3–5 times basal or proximal cauline leaves.
Leaves

basal not in ranks;

cauline (3–)5–9;

primary leaves palmate, proximal ones 5–18 cm;

petiole: long hairs spreading, stiff, glands common to abundant;

leaflets 5–7, at tip of leaf axis, separate, oblanceolate, margins flat or ± revolute, ± whole length ± evenly incised 1/3–1/2 to midvein, teeth 7–17 per side, surfaces ± similar, green, not glaucous, long hairs stiff, cottony and/or crisped hairs absent.
Inflorescences

(3–)7–60+-flowered, cymose, ± open.
Pedicels

straight in fruit, 0.5–2(–3) cm, proximal often much longer than distal.
Flowers

5-merous;

hypanthium 5–9 mm diam.;

petals pale [to bright] yellow, obcordate, (4–)7–10(–13) mm, equal to or longer than sepals, apex retuse, rarely rounded;

stamens 25–30;

styles subapical, columnar-tapered, not or slightly papillate-swollen in proximal 1/3, 0.8–1.3 mm.
Achenes

strongly rugose.

Potentilla sect. Rectae
Distribution
Eurasia; n Africa [Introduced in North America; introduced also in South America, Pacific Islands (New Zealand), Australia]
Discussion

Species 8–14 (1 in the flora).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 9, p. 141. Authors: Barbara Ertter, James L. Reveal.
Parent taxa Rosaceae > subfam. Rosoideae > tribe Potentilleae > Potentilla
Subordinate taxa
Synonyms P. Rectae
Name authority (Th. Wolf) Juzepczuk: in V. L. Komarov et al., Fl. URSS 10: 160. (1941)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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