Potentilla anserina

           
Silverweed

Basal Leaf Bottom

Last Mountain Lake Regional Park
30-June-2005

Note that pairs of large leaflets alternate with pairs of small leaflets.

bullet

Anserina: Answers to key questions in Budd's Flora and Flora of Alberta leading to this species.  
bullet

plant herb-like; NOT shrubby, NOT woody based

bullet

plants of drier habitats; NOT [a decumbent plant of aquatic and marshy habitats]

bullet

low creeping plant with runners

bullet

leaves basal

bullet

leaves pinnate

bullet

leaves silver-white below

bullet

flowers solitary on long naked peduncles, mostly from the nodes of stolons; flowers NOT [few to many, born in terminal cymes]

bullet

flowers yellow; NOT white, NOT reddish purple

bullet

achenes generally smooth; NOT hairy

 
bullet

Potentilla: Answers to key questions in Budd's Flora and Flora of Alberta leading to this genus.  These answers do not apply to all members of Potentilla found on the Canadian prairies, but they do apply to P. anserina.
bullet

herbs, or with a woody base and otherwise herbaceous; NOT shrubs, NOT trees

bullet

leaves compound; NOT [simple, usually toothed]

bullet

leaves NOT much dissected into linear lobes

bullet

basal leaves with more than 3 leaflets

bullet

hypanthium LACKING hooked prickles

bullet

calyx double, with 2 rings of lobes, the outer ones smaller than the inner; calyx NOT [simple, of 5 lobes]

bullet

petals usually longer than the sepals; petals NOT [small, little if any longer than the sepals]

bullet

stamens 10-many; NOT 5

bullet

carpels 10-many; NOT 5-20, NOT 2 (Flora of Alberta)

bullet

style articulated at base and deciduous from the achene; NOT jointed near the middle, NOT [hooked or plumose], NOT persisting in the fruit

bullet

style much shorter than the achene; NOT [much longer than the achene]

bullet

carpels becoming achenes (sometimes on a fleshy receptacle); carpels NOT [becoming druplets (raspberry-like)]

 

bullet

Rosaceae: Answers to key questions in Budd's Flora leading to this family.
bullet

herbs; NOT shrubs, NOT trees

bullet

plants terrestrial or semi-aquatic; plants NOT aquatic, leaves NOT submerged, leaves NOT floating

bullet

plants NOT with colored milky juice

bullet

plants with more than one normal leaf

bullet

some or all leaves alternate

bullet

leaves with stipules

bullet

flowers with two floral rings, and with each petal distinct from the others

bullet

flowers regular in shape

bullet

calyx regular

bullet

stamens usually separate or partly so; NOT in a column

bullet

stamens usually numerous; NOT [5 or 10]

bullet

ovary of one or more carpels, either separate or enclosed by a fleshy receptacle; NOT ovary of 5 united carpels