Potentilla

Potentilla, a genus of plants of the natural order Rosaceæ, sub-order Potentilleæ, differing from Fragaria (Strawberry) in the fruit having a dry instead of a succulent receptacle. The species are very numerous, natives chiefly of northern temperate regions, and some of them of the coldest north; most of them perennial herbaceous plants, with yellow, white, red, or purple flowers, and pinnate, digitate, or ternate leaves. They are often called Cinquefoil (Fr., 'five-leaved'); and some of the species are favourite garden flowers. A few are natives of Britain; one of the rarest of which is a shrubby species (P. fruticosa), forming a large bush, with pinnate leaves, and a profusion of yellow flowers, often planted in shrubberies. P. reptans, a common British species, with creeping stems, digitate leaves, and yellow flowers, once had a high reputation as a remedy for diarrhoea, from the astringent property of its root, of which most of the species partake with it. But P. anserina, a very common British species, popularly known as Silverweed, having creeping stems, yellow flowers, and pinnate leaves, which are beautifully silky and silvery beneath, has an edible root, with a taste somewhat like that of the parsnip. Swine grub it up with avidity, and it was once much esteemed as an article of food in some parts of Scotland, particularly in the Hebrides, where it abounds and has been a resource in times of famine. —The name potentilla is said to be derived from the Latin potens, 'powerful,' and to allude to medicinal virtues now known to merit little regard. Tormentil (q.v.) is sometimes referred to this genus.