Comarum palustre L.
marsh cinquefoil (purple marshlocks)
Rosaceae (Rose family)
Introduction to Vascular Plants
marsh cinquefoil (purple marshlocks)
Rosaceae (Rose family)
Introduction to Vascular Plants
Photograph
© Larry Halverson (Photo ID #46892)
Species Information
General:
Perennial herb from a long-creeping, often floating, somewhat woody rhizome; stems prostrate to ascending, 20-100 cm long/tall, smooth and frequently reddish below, becoming hairy and glandular above.
Leaves:
Alternate, deciduous, lower ones pinnately compound; leaflets 5 to 7, oblong, 2-8 cm long, coarsely saw-toothed, light green and smooth to sparsely hairy above, paler, glaucous and hairy beneath; upper leaves smaller; base of the leaf-stalks and stipules sheathing the stem.
Flowers:
Inflorescence a loose terminal cluster of few to several (or many) stalked flowers, the stalks glandular-hairy; corollas reddish-purple, saucer-shaped, about 2 cm across, the petals 5, lance-ovate to elliptic, 3-5 mm long; calyces glandular and hairy, 5-lobed, the lobes lance-egg-shaped, 7-15 mm long, spreading, enlarging and ascending in fruit, alternating with 5 narrower, shorter bractlets; ovaries superior; stamens about 25, purple.
Fruits:
Achenes, numerous, plumply egg-shaped, smooth, brownish-purple, about 1.5 mm long.
Illustration
If more than one illustration is available for a species (e.g., separate illustrations were provided for two subspecies) then links to the separate images will be provided below. Note that individual subspecies or varietal illustrations are not always available.
Illustration Source: The Illustrated Flora of British Columbia
Ecology
Ecological Framework for Comarum palustre
The table below shows the species-specific information calculated from
original data (BEC database) provided by the BC Ministry of Forests and Range.
(Updated August, 2013)
The table below shows the species-specific information calculated from
original data (BEC database) provided by the BC Ministry of Forests and Range.
(Updated August, 2013)
| Site Information |
Value / Class |
||
|
Avg |
Min |
Max |
|
| Elevation
(metres) |
982 | 0 | 2095 |
| Slope
Gradient (%) |
0 | 0 | 100 |
|
Aspect (degrees) |
1 | 0 | 360 |
| Soil
Moisture Regime (SMR) [0 - very xeric; 4 - mesic; 8 - hydric] |
7 | 0 | 8 |
| Modal
Nutrient Regime
Class |
C | ||
| #
of field plots species was recorded in: |
1211 | ||
| Modal
BEC Zone Class |
SBS | ||
|
All BEC Zones (# of stations/zone) species was recorded in |
AT(1), BAFA(3), BG(3), BWBS(72), CDF(17), CWH(74), ESSF(139), ICH(217), IDF(59), MH(3), MS(109), SBPS(79), SBS(402), SWB(5) | ||
|
Source:
Klinkenberg 2013
|
|||
Habitat and Range
Marshes, fens, bogs, lake margins and wet meadows in the lowland and montane zones; common throughout BC; circumboreal, N to AK, E to NF and S to NJ, WY and N CA; Greenland, Eurasia.Status Information
Synonyms
Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Potentilla palustris (L.) Scop.
Potentilla palustris var. parvifolia (Raf.) Fernald & Long
Potentilla palustris var. villosa (Pers.) Lehm.