abstract: In the first part, I describe how to associate a species with a given skew- symmetrizable matrix B. I introduce potentials for these species and explain how species with potentials can be mutated. In the second part, I focus on matrices B of finite mutation type. These are (with a few exceptions) precisely the adjacency matrices of triangulations of Riemann surfaces with marked and orbifold points. For each such triangulation we have constructed a species with potential. Our construction guarantees that triangulations related by the flip of an arc i give rise to species with potentials related by the mutation at i. This is joint work with Daniel Labardini Fragoso.