Dactylophyllum Spenn., Fl. Friburg.

Eriksson, Torsten, Persson, Nannie L. & Smedmark, Jenny E. E., 2022, What is Potentilla? A phylogeny-based taxonomy for Potentillinae (Rosaceae), TAXON 71 (3), pp. 493-505 : 498

Dactylophyllum Spenn., Fl. Friburg. 3: 1084. 1829 – Type

(designated here): Dactylophyllum fragaria Spenn. ,

nom. superfl. (≡ Fragaria vesca L.).

In a note to his Flora Friburgensis, Spenner (1829) argued for joining Fragaria with Potentilla because he did not consider their morphological differences significant enough to keep them apart. He discarded Pentaphyllum and Quinquefolium as less-fitting names for his joint generic concept (and obviously implicitly also both Potentilla and Fragaria ), and instead introduced Dactylophyllum , listing five species: Argentina anserina of the Anserina clade, Fragaria vesca and F. viridis in Fragariinae, Potentilla sterilis of the Alba clade, and Sibbaldia procumbens in Fragariinae. Although he mentioned various species in his brief discussion, along with the German common names “Fingerkraut” and “Fünffingerkraut”, he did not explicitly list any Potentilla species with digitate leaves for his new genus. No type has previously been designated for Dactylophyllum . Spenner used the name Dactylophyllum fragaria , but it is illegitimate since he should have used the ‘ vesca ’ epithet of Linnaeus. However, as mentioned above, few of his Dactylophyllum species have digitate leaves, and Fragaria vesca (in the Fragariinae) is the one that fits his generic concept best.