Potentilla nivea L.
snow cinquefoil
Rosaceae (Rose family)
Introduction to Vascular Plants
snow cinquefoil
Rosaceae (Rose family)
Introduction to Vascular Plants
SUBTAXA PRESENT IN BC
Potentilla nivea var. nivea
Species Information
General:
Perennial herb from a short rhizome and branched stem-base; stems few to several, loosely tufted, ascending to erect, 5-30 cm tall, woolly-hairy and often also cobwebby, rarely long-soft-hairy as well (var. pentaphylla).
Leaves:
Basal leaves few to numerous, palmately to somewhat pinnately compound, the stalks cobwebby-woolly; leaflets 3 to 5, egg-shaped to oblong, 0.5-3 cm long, coarsely blunt-toothed or cleft halfway to the midrib, greenish and silky-hairy above, white-woolly and rarely also long-hairy beneath; stem leaves alternate, 1 or 2, short-stalked or unstalked, reduced upwards.
Flowers:
Inflorescence a compact to open cluster of 1 to 9 stalked flowers; corollas yellow, bowl-shaped, the petals 5, heart-shaped, 4-7 mm long, shallowly notched at the tip; calyces silky-hairy to somewhat woolly, 5-lobed, the lobes lanceolate, 3-5 mm long, alternating with 5 linear-lanceolate bractlets shorter than the calyx-lobes; ovaries superior, the styles warty-thickened at the base; stamens usually 20.
Fruits:
Achenes, several to many, clustered, lopsided-egg-shaped, smooth, 1-2 mm long.
Notes:
Two varieties occur in BC:
1. Leaflets 3, coarsely toothed; the more common variety.............. var. nivea
1. Leaflets 3 to 5, cleft halfway to midrib; rare in BC east of the Coast-Cascade Mountains............... var. pentaphylla Lehm.
Ecology
Ecological Framework for Potentilla nivea
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) |
2041 | 39 | 2661 |
| Slope
Gradient (%) |
29 | 0 | 85 |
|
Aspect (degrees) |
211 | 90 | 360 |
| Soil
Moisture Regime (SMR) [0 - very xeric; 4 - mesic; 8 - hydric] |
2 | 0 | 6 |
| Modal
Nutrient Regime
Class |
C | ||
| #
of field plots species was recorded in: |
81 | ||
| Modal
BEC Zone Class |
AT | ||
|
All BEC Zones (# of stations/zone) species was recorded in |
AT(26), BAFA(19), cma(1), ESSF(18), ICH(2), IDF(1), IMA(8), SWB(3) | ||
|
Source:
Klinkenberg 2013
|
|||
Habitat and Range
Dry to mesic open grassy slopes, meadows, tundra, rock outcrops and sandy or gravelly benches in the montane to alpine zones; common (var. nivea) or rare (var. pentaphylla) throughout BC, in and east of the Coast-Cascade Mountains; circumboreal, N to AK, E to PQ and S to NV and CO; Greenland, Eurasia.Status Information
Synonyms
Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Potentilla chamissonis Hultén
Potentilla kuznetzovii (Govor.) Juz.
Potentilla nivea subsp. chamissonis (Hultén) Hiitonen