Perennial, creeping herbs. Rootstock thick. Stem slender, creeping and rooting at the nodes, moderately pilose to subglabrous. Leaves digitately 5-foliate, petioles 1-7 cm long, pilose. Basal stipules long, adnate and auriculate, upper ovate, leafy, entire or rarely incised. Leaflets generally sessile, oblong elliptic or obovate, crenate-dentate, subglabrous above, moderately adpressed pilose below. Flowers solitary, c. 1.5-2.0 cm diam, pedicels up to 8 cm long, filiform, moderately pilose. Calyces sericeous, outer elliptic-ovate, obtuse, inner ovate, acute. Petals obcordate, 7-8 mm long, Stamens 20-25. Receptacle pilose. Carpels numeorus, styles 0.8-0.9 mm long, subterminal, clavate.

Lectotype: ‘Habit in Europae apricis argillosis’ RCN: 3796. Herb. Linn. No. 655.38 (LINN). Jarvis l. c. 767.

B-6 Chitral, Drosh, J.D.A. Stainton 2272 (BM), B-7 Abbottabad, near the town of Abbottabad, 7.6.1910, Sir Harold Deane (K), Mansehra, Kaghan Valley, Mahandri, 1,620 m, F. Schmid 196 (G), B-8 Kashmir, without precise locality and without number, Thomson (G), Pahlgam, ± 7,200 ft, wet places, K.M. Vaid 22593 (RAW), Jambatai, Lt. S.A. Harris 16076 (BM), Kulgam, 2,600 m, T.A. Rao 9741 (G), Nisbat Bagh, ± 5,300 ft, 13.7.1891, G.A. Gammie s. n. (CAL), C-6 Kurram Valley, J.E.T. Aitchison 153 (K), Waziristan, Kaniguram, 6,500 ft, J.F. Duthie 15751 (K).

Distribution: Europe, Africa, Cyprus, Turkey, Syria, N. Iraq, Iran, Caucasus, Afghanistan, NW & Central Asia, Pakistan, Kashmir, N. India and China. Introduced in N. America.

Common near river banks, in grassy meadows, by roadsides and ditches between 1,500 and 3,000 m.

Potentilla reptans L. is considered to be the type species of the genus Potentilla.