Silverweed
Silverweed (Potentilla anserina) is a perennial in the rose family. It is also called common silverweed, silver cinquefoil, and coloquially as Indian sweet potato.
- Silverweed is a low-growing herbaceous plant that sends out reddish stolons (similar to strawberries).
- The basal leaves have silvery fine hairs. The leaves are oblong in shape, greenish, but also saw-toothed. Short petioles (short leaf stalks) branch out from leaf stems. All stems are also lightly hairy.
- Flowers grow at the ends of stalks that grow up from the leaf nodes of the stolons.
- The flowers are bowl-shaped and yellow, similar to buttercups.
- All photos by the author from local areas. Click an image for a lightbox view.
- After flowering, clusters of achenes (dry fruits) form.
- We spot silverweed by the shores of lakes, marshes, ponds, and wetlands, and even in depressions in the grasslands, especially on alkaline soils.
- The roots of silverweed are edible and were harvested by some traditional societies.
- Silverweed can be propagated from stolons or rhizomes, but needs a wet location throughout the year.
- Silverweed blooms in spring, but may also be spotted into early summer. It is pollinated by various bees and flies.
- Although silverweed is sometimes regarded as a weedy plant, we enjoy seeing it along the lakes and marshes of our area each year.