Distinguishing Potentilla Indica vs P hebiichigo
Both plants share these characteristics: Leaves palmately compound, green, trifoliate with pinnate and cross-venulate vennation, crenate leaf margins. The plant spreads along creeping stolons. Flowers solitary with 5 yellow petals. 5 bracts, widened upward with 3(5) teeth, interspersed with 5 shorter sepals. The unsweet aggregate accessory fruits consist of an expanded fleshy receptacle bearing superficial/protruding red achenes and whitish interior flesh. Best distinguished by the fruiting receptacles and achenes. Observation: Paired outer leaflets may become deeply cleft so it appears to have 5 leaflets(in dry conditions?)
Common lookalike: Fragaria has white petals, serrate teeth, recessed achenes & pinnate (not cross-venulate) vennation.
Duchesnea: http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=111019
Potentilla indica, formerly known as Duchesnea indica: Worldwide distribution.
Hara & Kurosawa 1959: Achenes smooth or obsoletely elevated-nerved, glossy when fresh. Fruiting receptacles bright red glossy 11-20 mm across, with a red neck. Plants generally larger in all respects. Leaves deeper green, leaflets obovate— rhombic-oblong, up to 4-7 cm long, lateral ones often bifid.
Sojak 2012: narrowly obovate petals, the green, rather thick leaves, the rhombic-oblong and acute central leaflet, the red fruiting receptacle, and the red and almost smooth achene surface.
US P. Indica key: https://fsus.ncbg.unc.edu/main.php?pg=show-key.php&highlighttaxonid=3150#verttarget
Potentilla hebiichigo, formerly known as Duchesnea chrysantha: Japan, Taiwan, Korea, China, Philippines and Indonesia.
Hara & Kurosawa 1959: Achenes distinctly rugose-tubercled, not shinning. Fruiting receptacles pinkish white not shinning 8-12 mm across, with a whitish neck. Plants smaller. Leaves yellowish green, leaflets rounded-obovate, less than 3 cm long 2.5 cm v wide. presence of accessory buds in axils of leaves
Sojak 2012: pink fruiting receptacle, obcordate petals, yellowish-green leaves, slender, broadly ovate and obtuse middle leaflet, and brownish, rugose or tuberculate achenes
Hara & Kurosawa 1959: https://archive.org/details/journal-japanese-botany-34-161-166/page/166/mode/1up
Yonekura et al 2008: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/331414722_hebiichigo_JJB83_301_305_2008
Faghir et al 2022, doi: 10.22092/ijb.2022.128184: https://www.cabidigitallibrary.org/doi/pdf/10.5555/20230077975
Soják, J.: Potentilla L. (Rosaceae) and related genera in Asia (excluding the former USSR), Africa and
New Guinea. Notes on Potentilla XXVIII. – Plant Div. Evol. 130: 7–157. 2012 doi:10.1127/1869-6155/2012/0130-0060
Anecdotally from leaf0605: The fruit of P. hebiichigo is round, the receptacle is white, the length of the calyx and the fruit is almost 1/1, and the surface of the achene is wrinkled.
The fruit of P. indica is oval and elliptical, with a red receptacle. The length of the calyx is only 1/3 of the fruit, and the surface of the achene is smooth.
Copy-Pastes:
Hello! Potentilla hebiichigo is characterized by matte, rugose-tuberculate achenes and matte, pinkish-white fruiting receptacles. Potentilla indica has glossy, smooth achenes and a red fruiting receptacle.
