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

	plants of drier habitats; NOT [plants of aquatic and marshy habitats]
	plants herb-like, not woody based; NOT [plants shrubby or with woody bases]
	perennial plant with stout rootstocks, often showing old bases of leaves; NOT [annual or biennial plant without perennial rootstocks]
	plants WITHOUT runners; NOT [low, creeping plant with runners]
	plants robust; NOT [plants slender]
	plants glandular-hairy; NOT [plants rarely glandular-hairy]
	basal leaves pinnate; NOT [basal leaves trifoliolate or 5-9 digitate]
	flowers few-many, in cymes; NOT [flowers solitary on naked peduncles, mostly from the nodes of stolons]
	cymes short, crowded; NOT [cymes open]
	petals little longer than sepals; NOT [petals longer than sepals] (Flora of Alberta)
	petals slightly longer than the sepals; NOT [petals as long as the sepals] (Budd’s Flora)
	flowers white; NOT [flowers yellowish white, yellow, or reddish purple]
	styles nearly basal in origin; NOT [styles arising near top of ovary]
	styles slender-fusiform; NOT [styles tapered from base]
	stamens 25-30; NOT [stamens 5-20]
	achenes generally smooth; NOT [achenes hairy]

Potentilla: Answers to key questions in Budd's Flora  and Flora of Alberta leading to this genus. 

	herbs, or with a woody base and otherwise herbaceous; NOT [shrubs or trees]
	leaves compound; NOT [leaves simple, usually toothed]
	leaves NOT much dissected into linear lobes
	basal leaves with MORE than 3 leaflets
	calyx bractlets present (appearing like 10 sepals); NOT [calyx bractlets lacking]
	hypanthium LACKING hooked prickles
	petals usually longer than the sepals; NOT [petals small, little if any longer than the sepals]
	stamens 10-many; NOT [stamens 5]
	carpels 10-many; NOT [carpels 5-20], NOT [carpels 2]
	styles articulated at base and not jointed near the middle; NOT [styles not articulated at base but often with an abrupt bend or joint near the middle]
	style much shorter than the achene; NOT [style much longer than the achene]
	NOT [style hooked or plumose in fruit]
	style deciduous from the achene, not persisting in the fruit
	carpels becoming achenes NOT [carpels becoming drupelets (raspberry-like)]
	fruit NOT fleshy