Potentilla fruticosa L.

• Authority

  Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

• Family

  Rosaceae

• Scientific Name

  Potentilla fruticosa L.

• Description

  Species Description - Bushy-branched shrub to 1 m; lvs numerous, short-petioled, pinnately compound with 5–7 crowded, narrow, entire, often revolute lfls 1–2 cm, the 3 terminal ones often confluent; fls solitary or few at the ends of the branches, yellow, 2–3 cm wide; bractlets lanceolate, as long as but much narrower than the ovate, acuminate sep; ovaries and achenes villous; style lateral; 2n=14, 28. Wet meadows, bogs, and shores, especially in calcareous soil; circumboreal, s. to N.J., n. Ill., S.D., and Ariz., and reported from Tenn. June–Sept. (Dasiphora f.) Our plants, and many of the Eurasian ones, are diploid and hermaphrodite, and have been segregated as P. floribunda Pursh. Typical P. fruticosa, of Siberia and n. Europe, is tetraploid and functionally dioecious.

• Common Names

  shrubby five-fingers