False strawberry

 

Scientific Name: Potentilla indica (Andrews) Th.Wolf
Family: Rosaceae

 

MORPHOLOGY

 

Habit and Size: Perennial herbaceous plant, 10-50 cm tall, with a short rhizome.

 

Stems: Aerial stolons, emerging from the side of the leaf rosette, hairy, trailing on the ground, and rooting at the nodes.

 

Leaves: Green and pubescent leaves on both sides, often tinged with red, palmate with three shortly petiolate, obovate, and dentate segments.

 

Flowers: Isolated hermaphrodite flowers, dialypetalous with a diameter of 3 cm; tridentate lobes of the epicalyx; 5 yellow petals (8mm), obovate. Blooms from April to July.

Fruits and Seeds: The fruits are inner achenes with pappus, outer ones without pappus.

 

DISTRIBUTION AND HABITAT

 

An Asian allochthonous species present throughout Italy except Sicily, Calabria, Basilicata, Puglia, and Molise. It grows in damp woodlands and among hedges from sea level to 800 m.

 

INTERESTING FACTS

 

Cultivated at the Botanical Garden of Turin since 1816, it was observed growing wild in Piedmont and Lombardy even during the nineteenth century.

 

Photo: Under a free license by Saxifraga, Ed Stikvoort, Ab H Baas.