Description: Perennial, rarely annual or biennial herbs [or small shrubs].
Leaves usually palmately or pinnately compound, leaflets commonly toothed or dissected, mostly hairy; stipules fused to petiole.
Flowers solitary or in cymes. Hypanthium shallow. Epicalyx similar to, and alternating with, 5 sepals. Petals usually 5, commonly yellow, [rarely white, red or purplish]. Stamens 10–30. Carpels usually 10–80.
Fruit a head of achenes on an elongated dry or spongy receptacle.
Distribution and occurrence: World: 500 species, cosmopolitan, chiefly northern temperate & Arctic regions. Australia: 4 species (naturalized), N.S.W., Vic., Tas.
Text by G. J. Harden & A. N. Rodd
Taxon concept:
Taxa not yet included in identification key
Potentilla indica,
Potentilla vesca
| | Key to the species | |
| 1 | Leaves pinnate; flowers solitary, axillary | 2 |
| Leaves palmate; inflorescence terminal, cymose, many-flowered | Potentilla recta |
| 2 | Plants with stolons; petals longer than sepals; peduncles more than 50 mm long | Potentilla anserina |
| Plants without stolons; petals shorter than sepals; peduncles less than 5 mm long
Back to 1 | Potentilla supina |
|
