Calyx-tube inversely conical; the limb 5-cleft, with 5 often minute and deciduous bractlets. Petals 5. Stamens many, inserted into the throat of the calyx. Achenes 2–6, minutely hairy; the terminal slender styles deciduous from the base by a joint. Seed erect; radicle inferior.—Low perennial herbs, with chiefly radical 3–5-lobed or divided leaves, and small yellow flowers on bracted scapes. (Named in honor of Francis von Waldstein, a German botanist.)
1. W. fragarioìdes, Tratt. (Barren Strawberry.) Low; leaflets 3, broadly wedge-form, cut-toothed, scapes several-flowered; petals longer than the calyx.—Wooded hillsides, N. Eng. to Ga., west to Ind., Mich., and Minn.
9. FRAGÀRIA, Tourn. Strawberry.
Flowers nearly as in Potentilla. Styles deeply lateral. Receptacle in fruit much enlarged and conical, becoming pulpy and scarlet, bearing the minute dry achenes scattered over its surface.—Stemless perennials, with runners, and with white cymose flowers on scapes. Leaves radical; leaflets 3, obovate-wedge-form, coarsely serrate, stipules cohering with the base of the petioles, which with the scapes are usually hairy. (Name from the fragrance of the fruit.)—Flowering in spring. (The species are indiscriminately called Wild Strawberry.)
1. F. Virginiàna, Mill. Achenes imbedded in the deeply pitted fruiting receptacle, which usually has a narrow neck, calyx becoming erect after flowering and connivent over the hairy receptacle when sterile or unfructified; leaflets of a firm or coriaceous texture; the hairs of the scapes, and especially of the pedicels, silky and appressed.—Moist or rich woodlands, fields, etc.; common.
Var. Illinoénsis, Gray, is a coarser or larger plant, with flowers more inclined to be polygamo-diœcious, and the villous hairs of the scape and pedicels widely spreading.—Rich soil, western N. Y. to Minn., and westward.
2. F. vésca, L. Achenes superficial on the glabrous conical or hemispherical fruiting receptacle (not sunk in pits); calyx remaining spreading or reflexed; hairs on the scape mostly widely spreading, on the pedicels appressed; leaflets thin, even the upper face strongly marked by the veins.—Fields and rocky places; less common. (Eu.)
F. Índica, L., differing from the true strawberries in having leafy runners, a calyx with incised leafy bractlets larger than the sepals, yellow petals, and insipid fruit, has become somewhat established near Philadelphia and in the S. States; an escape from cultivation. Flowers and fruit produced through the summer and autumn. (Adv. from India.)
10. POTENTÍLLA, L. Cinque-foil. Five-finger.
Calyx flat, deeply 5-cleft, with as many bractlets at the sinuses, thus appearing 10-cleft. Petals 5, usually roundish. Stamens many. Achenes many, collected in a head on the dry mostly pubescent or hairy receptacle; styles lateral or terminal, deciduous. Radicle superior.—Herbs, or rarely shrubs, with compound leaves, and solitary or cymose flowers; their parts rarely in fours. (Name a diminutive from potens, powerful, originally applied to P. Anserina, from its once reputed medicinal powers.)