Potentilla pensylvanica L. var. pensylvanica
Pennsylvanian cinquefoil (Pennsylvania cinquefoil)
Rosaceae (Rose family)
Introduction to Vascular Plants
Pennsylvanian cinquefoil (Pennsylvania cinquefoil)
Rosaceae (Rose family)
Introduction to Vascular Plants
Map
Distribution of Potentilla pensylvanica var. pensylvanica
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Species Information
General:
Perennial herb from a simple or branched stem-base covered with brown remains of old leaf-bases; stems slender, 1 to several, tufted, spreading to erect, 10-80 cm tall, simple or branched above, hairy and usually also thinly woolly.
Leaves:
Basal leaves stalked, pinnately compound; leaflets 7 to 11 (15), the upper 3 the largest, oblong to lanceolate, 1-5 cm long, cleft halfway or nearly to the midrib into linear-oblong lobes, grey-green and smooth to appressed-hairy on the upper surface, white-woolly to minutely appressed-hairy or nearly smooth and greenish beneath; stem leaves alternate, 3 to 4, reduced upwards.
Flowers:
Inflorescence a compact, narrow, terminal cluster of few to several stalked flowers; corollas yellow, bowl-shaped, the petals 5, egg-shaped, 5-8 mm long, shallowly notched or not at the tip; calyces woolly- to appressed-hairy and more or less glandular, 5-lobed, the lobes lance-triangular, 4-7 mm long, alternating with 5 shorter, narrowly lanceolate bractlets; ovaries superior, the styles glandular-warty-thickened at the base; stamens usually 20.
Fruits:
Achenes, numerous, clustered, lopsided-egg-shaped, 1-1.5 mm long, brown, smooth but often granular.
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
Habitat and Range
Dry grasslands and rocky or gravelly slopes in the steppe and montane zones; frequent in C and E BC, infrequent northward; N to AK, E to NF and S to NV and MN; Greenland.Status Information
Synonyms
Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Potentilla atrovirens Rydb.
Potentilla bipinnatifida var. glabrata (Lehm. ex Hook.) Kohli & Packer
Potentilla glabella Rydb.
Potentilla pensylvanica var. atrovirens (Rydb.) T. Wolf
Potentilla pensylvanica var. glabrata (Lehm. ex Hook.) S. Watson
Potentilla pensylvanica var. ovium Jeps.
Potentilla pensylvanica var. strigosa Pall. ex Pursh
Potentilla platyloba Rydb.
Potentilla pseudosericea Rydb.
Potentilla strigosa (Pall. ex Pursh) Pall. ex Tratt.