Potentilla L. sect. Rivales WOLF and related taxa in the Baltic states

Morphological variation of Potentilla norvegica L., P. heidenreichii ZIMMETER and P. supina L. usually treated within the section Rivales WOLF, P. recta L. (sect. Rectae WOLF), P. canescens BESS., P. argentea L. s.l, P. collina WIBEL (sect. Argenteae WOLF) and P. goldbachii RUPR. (sect. Chrysanthae WOLF) was studied using multivariate statistical methods. According to k-means clustering, P. canescens stands closer to P. heidenreichii of the sect. Rivales than to P. argentea. P: collins, the other representative of sect Argenteae, is not connected with P. canescens at all. Therefore, P. canescens should belong to sect. Rivales and not to Sect. Argenteae. In Potentilla argentea s.l., P. impolita WAHLENB., P. argentea L. var. argentea, var. decumbens (JORD.) LEHM., var, demissa (JORD.) LEHM., var, grandiceps (ZIMMETER) ROUY et E.G. CAMUS and var. tenerrima (VELEN.) WOLF were identified. P. impolita specimens did not cluster out into a separate cluster as did P. collina, P. canescens and P. heidenreichii, but formed mixed clusters with different varieties of P. argentea s.str. Therefore, P. impolita is not worthy of the rank of species and evidently not even that of subspecies, and should be treated as a variety - P. argentea var. incanescens (OPIZ) FOCKE.