Potentilla indica vs. Potentila hebiichigo

Nature Talk
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@sarah_oberlin recently turned my attention to a different Mock Strawberry than Potentilla indica. It turns out many P. hebiichigo plants have been misidentified as P. indica because this foreign invasive species has not been well described and is missing in many regional keys. A few of us (thanks @lappelbaum, @hikuta, @alex_iosipenko, @peakaytea) went on a mission to correct these IDs but there are thousands and new ones are popping up every day.

Here are the main differences between the two species, which from afar may look like the same. Pictures of fruit are most helpful, flowers cannot be discerned (as far as I know), and leaves may be indicative only sometimes.

Potentilla hebiichigo: Raspberry red achenes distinctly RUGOSE-tubercled, matte - not shining, white to light pink receptacle surface when ripe, with WHITISH receptacle neck. Epicalyx to receptacle height ratio 1:1. Leaves light green or yellowish-green, leaflets (1.5–2.5 cm) long, broad ovate or obovate, thin and somewhat membranous, with margins obtusely or ACUTELY serrate; presence of accessory buds in axils of leaves. Flowers 0.5–1.5 cm in diameter.
Both leaves and fruit of P. hebiichigo are smaller than those of P. indica but very few pictures show any scale.

Potentilla indica: True red, SHINY achenes when fresh, shiny RED receptacle surface and RED neck. Epicalyx to receptacle height ratio 1:3. Leaves green or dark green, leaflets 2–3.5 cm. long, margin obtusely serrate.

When you find one of these, please make sure you take a good close-up of the berry, preferably also a side view to show the neck. You can also pick one of the berries later and see what color the ring on the hypanthium is.

Flora of North America does not mention P. hebiichigo (yet). Here is a link to Flora of China:
http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=2&taxon_id=111019

Sarah Oberlin created an infographic that pinpoints the differences. I will leave it to her to include a link to it as well as to her thorough journal notes.

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Outside of east and southeast Asia, iNat observations of Potentilla hebiichigo have been found in Georgia (the country) and the USA.

USA so far:
Texas
Louisiana
Arkansas
Mississippi
Alabama
Georgia
Florida
South Carolina
Virginia
Maryland
Pennsylvania
New York
New Jersey
Connecticut
Rhode Island
Massachusetts
Maine

Updating this list as we find more

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Thank you bottanydot, I hope this will raise awareness of the differences between the two!
Distinguishing Potentilla Indica vs P hebiichigo ¡ iNaturalist
lists the differing characteristics of P. indica & P. hebiichigo and what academic articles they are pulled from. It also includes a link to this infographic that I made, which I hope to be helpful!
If all works out as I plan, I will be submitting a scientific note about this range extension to Phytoneuron this year. :crossed_fingers:

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Note to self: never make an observation without fruit or someone will bump it back to genus.

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Earlier I was noting that the common name Yellow-flowered Mock Strawberry didn’t really make sense since both species have yellow flowers. I noticed that the scientific name was Japanese for snake (hebi) strawberry (ichigo). I looked at the Japanese Wikipedia page for this species and found that the scientific name is just the romanji of the common Japanese name. As for why they are called snake strawberries, this was the translation I got for the Wikipedia page:

“Snake Strawberry ( ヘビイチゴ or 蛇苺 , scientific name : Potentilla hebiichigo Yonek. et H.Ohashi ) is a perennial plant in the Rosaceae family, Potentilla genus . There are various theories about the origin of the Japanese name , including that its fruits are inedible and eaten by snakes, that it grows in places where there are likely to be snakes, and that the snakes wait there to hunt small animals that come to eat the strawberries.”

Maybe we should call it “Snake Strawberry” for the English common name instead of Yellow-flowered Mock Strawberry.

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I think, per the guidelines, common names should only be added if actually in use in that language. Unless Snake Strawberry is actually in use in English, a better solution would probably be to just have no common name.

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English Wikipedia already uses “Snake berry” for Potentilla indica: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potentilla_indica

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The only other mention of a common name I could find was this: According to a user on steemit. com (a site which I have never heard of) it is „commonly known as the snakeberry cinquefoil, or creeping cinquefoil“:
https://steemit.com/photography/@jarintasmin/potentilla-hebiichigo-flower

But I doubt this is a reliable source. I don’t think that a single person using it would warrant adding a common name.

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It was previously unknown in English speaking countries so it doesn’t have an English common name. So then we should remove Yellow-flowered Mock Strawberry and just have the scientific name? What if @sarah_oberlin uses a common name in her published scientific note? Can we then use that name on iNat?

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If it really isn’t in use anywhere, then yes, I think so. Especially as it is misleading. (Since as you said, both it and P. indica have yellow flowers)

Or, from the curator guidelines:

I don’t know. It seems like a loophole that technically wouldn’t violate the guidelines, but in practice it is not much different. I think the point of common names is that they are common.
That being said, someone had to have invented common names, so if the common name from that paper becomes more widely used, then I see no problem.

Edit: Perhaps we should apply some Research-Grade logic to common names and only add them, if there are two (mor or less independent) different sources reporting/using it?

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Is it known to grow in Europe? I quickly went through Czech observations and all seem to conform to the P. indica description.

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Not in Europe proper so far as I can tell. Georgia, which straddles Eastern Europe/West Asia, has some P. hebiichigos!

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I think leaving it as just the scientific name on iNat is fine (remove current yellow-flowered name). I guess I’m more interested in what I should call it when talking to people IRL than what to put on iNaturalist. It’s super common here in SE Texas. Not everyone is good with remembering or pronouncing scientific names (nor uses iNat). I found it easy to read because I’m accustomed to reading romanji (Japanese written with Latin alphabet). On the other hand I could use it as an opportunity to teach people a tiny bit of Japanese.

  • Japanese mock strawberry (vs Indian mock strawberry)
  • Japanese strawberry (vs Indian strawberry)
  • snake strawberry (vs mock strawberry)
  • snakeberry
  • hebiichigo or hebi ichigo (heh-bee ee-chee-go)
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I think it is important for all the Potentilla indica identifiers to become aware of the expanded P. hebiichigo range. If you spot any of these features:

  • RUGOSE, matte achenes (seeds on the surface, much like on a real strawberry);
  • WHITE to light pink receptacle (berry) surface or WHITE neck (narrowed part adjacent to sepals);
  • LIGHT GREEN or yellowish-green leaves that are ACUTELY serrated;
    then you should ID this plant as P. hebiichigo and not P. indica.

If the plant is in an area where P. hebiichigo has never been reported (e.g., northern Midwest to the West Coast of the US or Europe except for Georgia), you need to be positive before you mark it as such.

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Thank you for this! Something always rubbed me the wrong way about the white-ish pink receptacles.

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Understandable. Something rubs me the wrong way about seeing white strawberries in markets. Although, even back when it was called Duchesnia, both species were known. Sarah’s journal entry includes the Duchesnia names of both.

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Continuing the discussion from Potentilla indica vs. Potentila hebiichigo:

I am happy to report that the Vascular plants of North Carolina website now lists P. hebiichigo on their website & has nominated “Lesser Mock-strawberry” as the English common name due to it being smaller than P. indica.
The Flora of the Southeastern US key also now keys out P. hebiichigo as present in the U.S. Huzzah!

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Merged the above post to this topic and reopened.