Potentilla pseudoanserina Bert.
Perennial, prostrate herbs. Rootstock short, up to 1 cm thick, dark brown with remains of leaf bases. Flowering stem prostrate and creeping, indeterminate and stoloniferous, sparsely pilose. Basal leaves numerous and variable forming a rosette at the base (2.5-) 7-20 cm long, irregularly and interruptedly 6-13 paripinnate with small intermediary leaflets, petioles short, 1-2 cm, sparsely silky hairy to glabrescent. Basal stipules adnate below, ferrugineus, brown, lanceolate, entire, upper stipules leafy and generally divided. Leaflets (5-) 10-30 x (2-) 5-10 mm, sessile, oblong-obovate, acutely and deeply serrate crenate, upper surface moderately adpressed pilose or ± glabrous and green, lower argenteo-sericeous or niveo-tomentose. Flowers (10-) 15-20 mm, axillary and solitary, pedicels (1.5) 3-10 cm long, densely sericeous. Calyces densely sericeous, outer sepals oblong entire or divided, generally longer than the inner ovate sepals. Petals obovate, rounded above. Stamens about 20. Carpels numerous, ovoid, styles lateral, rod-shaped. Achenes dorsally sulcate.
Fl. Per.: June-August
Lectotype: ‘Habitat in Europae pascuis, in argillosis argentea.’ RCN: 3774, Herb. Clifford, 193, Potenilla 1 (BM-000628646), Jarvis, Order out of Chaos: 766. 2007.
A-7 Chitral Dist., Yarkhun, ± 4,000 m., F. Schmid 2360 (BM, G, RAW), A-8 Gilgit, Nagar village area 7,800 ft., O. Polunin 6405 (BM), Nagar, F. Schmid 1936 (RAW, G), B-8 Baltistan, Shagarthang Valley 10-11,000 ft., J.F. Duthie 12108 (E), Shigar, ± 7,700 ft. C.B. Clarke 30453 (K), B-9 Kashmir, Vicinity of Dras 88 miles NE of Srinagar over 10,000 ft., F.G. Dickason 677 (MICH), Leh (Ladakh), ± 11,500 ft, on banks of water channels, flowers yellow, Ludlow & Sherriff 8398 (E), Stock, 3,352 m, irrigated and cultivated land around village, Janet Maxwell 58 (E), Zanskar, ± 11,000 ft, grassy, damp stream banks, Southampton Univ. Botanical Expedition 55 (BM), Kargia, W. Koelz 5467 (US, MICH).
Distribution: Pakistan, Kashmir, India (Himachal Pradesh), China, Mongolia, Russia, Europe, Australia (Tasmania), North America, Pacific Islands (New Zealand), South America (Chile) (Chaoluan, Ikeda & Ohba, l. c.).
A highly polymorphic species exhibiting various forms in Europe and N. America. The Himalayan taxa are not very variable and belong to the group of the Potentilla anserine aggregate that is closer to the typical Linnean form. The species is common in central Kashmir and N. Pakistan (Gilgit, Baltistan and Chitral), on river banks, roadsides, in pastures and in cultivated fields from 2,000 to 3,000 m.
Economically important species. Young shoots are eaten as salad, young roots as a cheap source of food in Siberia. It is medicinally important being astringent, spasmolytc, tonic, used as tea or in wine to cure diarrhea, leucorrhoea, kidney stones, arthritis etc.