Potentilla sterilis
species of plant
Potentilla sterilis, also called strawberryleaf cinquefoil or barren strawberry, is a perennial herbaceous species of flowering plant in the rose family, Rosaceae. It is native to Europe.
Description
The plant looks rather like wild woodland strawberry (Fragaria vesca), or a cultivated strawberry, but is a smaller plant, with smaller flowers, and it does not form fleshy fruit. After the petals have fallen from a flower no obvious fruit forms. The petals are usually well separated from one another, not overlapping as in Fragaria vesca. Another distinguishing feature, illustrated in the photograph at left, is that the terminal tooth of the leaflets is usually shorter than the adjacent teeth and the leaves are matte and darker green.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Potentilla sterilis” as species of plant. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the science & nature register because the source frames it as species of plant. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Stable identifiers, scientific names and standards terminology offer the best bridge between this overview and specialist evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 25, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q158900. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
Scientific names, classifications and consensus can change while older terminology persists in catalogues and historical literature. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Potentilla sterilis” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.