Plant Species: Potentilla gracilis, slender cinquefoil
Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Magnoliophyta -- flowering plants
Class: Magnoliopsida -- dicotyledons
Order: Rosales
Family: Rosaceae -- rose
Genus: Potentilla
Species: gracilis
Infraspecific taxa: P. gracilis is highly variable and a large number of subspecies and/or varieties have been proposed at one time or another.
Common Name: slender cinquefoil, five-finger cinquefoil
Species Code: POGR9
Origin: A highly variable species native to mesic grasslands, meadows, and open forests of western North America from Alaska south to California and east to New Mexico and Saskatchewan.
Rare: no
Form: forb, highly variable perennial from a caudex, stems several, ascending to erect, usually branched, 40-80 cm tall, pubescence appressed to spreading.
Mature height: 16-32 inches
Duration: perennial
Longevity: medium lifespan
Habitat Type: prairie, forest
Wetland Indicator Status: FAC
Leaves: basal leaves numerous, long petiolate, variable, palmately compound, leaflets 5-9, oblanceolate to oblong-elliptic, coarsely toothed to lobed, ranging from green and glabrous on both surfaces to pubescent on the upper surface or heavily lanate and grayish on the lower surface, occasionally glandular; cauline leaves few, alternate.
Flowers: numerous, borne in an open cyme; calyx cup-shaped, 5 lobed, usually eglandular but sometimes hairy and glandular, lobes lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, 4-7 mm long, acuminate, alternating with 5 shorter bractlets; petals 5, yellow, obovate-cordate, 6-10 mm long, the tip notched, longer than the sepals; stamens about 20, pistils numerous.
Flower color: yellow
Bloom: June, July
Bloom starts on: early June
Bloom ends on: late July
Fruit: achene, 1.1-1.3 mm long, greenish brown, smooth to faintly reticulated.
Vegetation type:
Characteristics:
P. blaschkeana in St. John (1963), Piper & Beattie (1914).
Reproduces by seed.
Potentilla as a genus is taxonomically difficult. Apomixis and hybridization cause further complications. P. gracilis is especially highly variable and often apomictic. A large number of subspecies and/or varieties have been proposed at one time or another.
1,711,698 seeds/lb (USDA NRCS Pullman PMC 2005).
Perennating organ is a caudex.
2n=52-109 (Hitchcock et al 1969, Baldwin et al 2004).
x=7 (University of British Columbia 2003).
Flowers are perfect.
Polyploidy and aneuploidy are present.
Bombus bifarius and B. flavifrons forage for pollen on the flowers (Zimmerman 1982).
Used medicinally by Native peoples (Parish et al 1996).
Fruit is an achene.
May be eaten by elk and Rocky Mountain goats but generally has little forage value (Craighead et al 1963). Rocky Mountain elk use the plants in summer and fall (Kufeld 1973).
Comments:
Sun requirement: full sun
Soil moisture: mesic
Precipitation: 20-80 inches (USDA NRCS PLANTS Database 2010).
Fire:
Hazards:
Sowing time: fall or very early spring
Transplant time: spring
Stratification: cold moist
Seed yield: high
Seed harvest: medium difficulty
Seed first harvest: second season
Seed cleaning: easy
Planting duration: medium?
Seed insect problem: none noted
Seed shatter: medium
Seed size: very small
Seed harvest date: mid July
Seed comments: Holds seed well if there is no wind. When hand harvesting, hold the plants upright until they are in the bag.
Keywords: native perennial upland forb
Alternate Genus:
Alternate Species: blaschkeana
Alternate Variety:
Notes: Potentilla gracilis has slender branches which do not hold the bright yellow flowers upright as with P. arguta. Deeply dissected leaves and graceful stems make this a more attractive plant than P. arguta. Grows easily from seed given a short stratification period. Flowers in June, slightly later than P. arguta. Common name is slender cinquefoil (Skinner et al 2005).
References:
Baldwin, B.G., S. Boyd, B.J. Ertter, D.J. Keil, R.W. Patterson, T.J. Rosatti, and D.H. Wilken (eds). 2004. Jepson Online Interchange for California Floristics. University and Jepson Herbaria, University of California, Berkeley, CA. Accessed 1/1/10 online at http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/interchange.html
Craighead, John J., Frank C. Craighead, and Ray J. Davis. 1963. A Field Guide to Rocky Mountain Wildflowers. Houghton Mifflin Co. Boston, MA.
Hitchcock, C. Leo, Arthur Cronquist, Marion Ownbey, and J.W. Thompson. 1969. Vascular Plants of the Pacific Northwest. University of Washington Press. Seattle, WA. 5 vol.
Kufeld, Roland. 1973. Foods Eaten by the Rocky Mountain Elk. Journal of Range Management 26:106-113.
Parish, Roberta, Ray Coupe, and Dennis Lloyd. 1996. Plants of Southern Interior British Columbia. Lone Pine Publishing. Vancouver, BC, Canada.
Piper, C.V., and R.K. Beattie. 1914. The Flora of Southeastern Washington and Adjacent Idaho. Press of the New Era Printing Company, Lancaster, PA. 296 pp.
Skinner, David M., Paul Warnick, Bill French, and Mary Fauci. 2005. Characteristics and Uses of Native Palouse Forbs in Landscaping. USDA NRCS Pullman Plant Materials Center and Palouse Prairie Foundation. Online at http://www.wsu.edu/pmc_nrcs/Docs/Forbs_for_Landscaping.pdf
St. John, Harold. 1963. Flora of Southeastern Washington and of Adjacent Idaho. 3rd edition. Outdoor Pictures. Escondido, CA.
University of British Columbia. 2003. British Columbia Flora. University of British Columbia Botanical Garden and Centre for Plant Research. Accessed 9/1/09 online at http://www.bcflora.org/
USDA NRCS. 2010. The PLANTS Database (http://plants.usda.gov, 11 February 2010). National Plant Data Center, Baton Rouge, LA 70874-4490 USA.
USDA NRCS, Pullman Plant Materials Center. 2005. Seed Weights of Some Palouse Native Species. Pullman Plant Materials Center, Pullman, Washington. Online at http://www.wsu.edu/~pmc_nrcs/Docs/Seed_Weights_Palouse_Native_Species.pdf
Young, James A., and Cheryl G. Young. 1986. Collecting, Processing and Germinating Seeds of Wildland Plants. Timber Press, Portland, OR.
Zimmerman, Michael. 1982. Optimal Foraging: Random Movement by Pollen Collecting Bumblebees. Oecologia 53: 394-398.