Potentilla indica Seeds | Mock Strawberry
LATIN NAME: Potentilla indica
COMMON NAME: Mock Strawberry
Plant Profile
A distinctive member of its genus, Mock Strawberry (Potentilla indica) is a fine, easy, generous ground cover. Mock strawberry is a fine, trailing, low-growing plant of waysides and shaded banks, and its small, bright-yellow, five-petalled flowers and small, red, strawberry-like fruits have made it a familiar of countryside for a very long time. Fruits are mild and bland and best left to birds, and plant is a fine, easy, generous ground cover of shaded, moist ground. It is a plant of ordinary, well-drained soil. Bees find the flowers quickly, and that pollinator traffic is a garden benefit in its own right. These traits together are what have kept the plant in gardens for so long.
Science & Biotechnology
The species features in the wider study of the Potentilla group, and its traits make it a useful subject for work on germination biology, cultivation and ornamental selection. Mock strawberry has a steady and growing place in plant science, and it has been studied for its creeping, rooting habit and its place among low, trailing ground covers. A long cultivation history means growers know what to expect from it.
Uses & Benefits
Beyond its ornamental appeal, Mock Strawberry has the practical versatility that makes a plant worth growing from seed year after year. Mock strawberry is grown for fine, bright-yellow flowers and small, red, strawberry-like fruits. Low, creeping plant makes a generous, easy ground cover of shaded banks and difficult corners, and small, red fruits are a fine food for birds through the season. Bright-yellow flowers open over a very long season, and they are a fine, cheerful addition to shaded garden. Thereafter it wants only the ordinary attentions any garden plant receives.
Cinquefoils are astringent folk herbs of Europe for digestion and sore gums, and potentilla tormentil root remains official in European herbals; the garden types are tough, long-blooming perennials.
Growing from Seed
Seed is the natural starting point for Mock Strawberry, and the process is uncomplicated. Broadcast the seed thinly over a fine, free-draining compost, sieve a little more compost on top, and water with a fine rose. When the young plants are big enough to handle, space them into pots or a nursery row and let them size up before their final move.
Our Take
Among the Potentilla group, it is one of the more distinctive species in cultivation. From then on, routine care is all that is required.
Related Reading
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