Potentilla indica (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Potentilla indica (H.C. Andrews) Wolf

Family: Rosaceae

Synonyms

• Fragaria indica H.C. Andrews,
• Duchesnea indica (H.C. Andrews) Focke.

Vernacular names

• Indian strawberry, mock strawberry (En)
• Indonesia: saladren (Java), arben leuweung, arbenan (Sundanese)
• Laos: 'nha ho khay
• Thailand: stroboeri-pa
• Vietnam: dzâu ân', dâu dât.

Distribution

Throughout southern and eastern continental Asia. In Malesia in Indonesia (Java, Sumatra, Lesser Sunda Islands), Peninsular Malaysia and the Philippines. It is occasionally cultivated.

Uses

The fruit is edible and juicy but insipid. Sometimes it is cultivated as a cover crop or as an ornamental. It is also used as a vegetable and medicinally it is applied against malaria.

Observations

• Perennial herb with rosettes and long prostrate stems, producing numerous daughter plants.
• Fruit a pseudocarp with a soft fleshy globose torus of 0.5-1 cm diameter, red, with spreading to reflexed epicalyx and calyx.

In forests, disturbed habitats, often in damp places, at altitudes between 700-2300 m.

Selected sources

• Burkill, I.H., 1966. A dictionary of the economic products of the Malay Peninsula. 2nd ed. 2 Volumes. Ministry of Agriculture and Co-operatives, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 2444 pp.

• Flore du Cambodge, du Laos et du Vietnam (various authors), 1960-. Vol. 1-24. Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris.

• Heyne, K., 1927. De nuttige planten van Nederlandsch Indië [The useful plants of the Dutch East Indies]. 2nd ed. 3 Volumes. Departement van Landbouw, Nijverheid en Handel in Nederlandsch Indië. 1953 pp.

• Kalkman, C., 1968. Potentilla, Duchesnea, and Fragaria in Malesia (Rosaceae). Blumea 16: 325-354.

Authors

P.C.M. Jansen, J. Jukema, L.P.A. Oyen, T.G. van Lingen