Source: Elven, Reider and David Murray. 2008. The Potentilla villosa-uniflora group in northwestern North America. Botanical Electronic News #390, March 12, 2008.
Species Information
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expanded illustration for this species.
General: Perennial herb from a short rhizome and stout branched stem-base covered with dark-brown remains of old leaf-bases; stems several, tufted, ascending to erect, 5-30 cm tall, often branching above the middle, spreading-long-hairy and usually woolly beneath the long hairs, at least above.
Leaves: Basal leaves several, palmately compound, stalked, the stalks long-spreading-hairy and woolly; leaflets 3, rather thick and leathery, broadly egg- to fan-shaped, 0.5-2 cm long, coarsely blunt-toothed on the upper half, greenish and silky to nearly smooth above, greyish-white-woolly and with overlying long silky hairs on the lower surface, the veins usually evident; stem leaves alternate, 1 or 2, nearly unstalked, not much reduced.
Flowers: Inflorescence of 1 to 5, stalked, terminal flowers in fairly open clusters; corollas yellow, bowl-shaped, the petals 5, heart-shaped, 5-12 mm long, shallowly notched at the tip; calyces silky-hairy, 5-lobed, the lobes triangular, 3-7 mm long, alternating with 5 elliptic-oval bractlets about as long as the calyx-lobes; ovaries superior, the styles slightly warty-thickened at the base; stamens usually 20.
Fruits: Achenes, several to many, clustered, lopsided-egg-shaped, 1-2 mm long, smooth or somewhat net-veined.
Dry to mesic coastal bluffs, beaches, meadows and rocky slopes in all zones; common throughout all but SC BC, especially along the coast; amphiberingian, N to AK, E to AB and S to WA; E Asia.
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)
