OLD-FIELD CINQUEFOIL
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| File Size: 65 KB |
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Potentilla simplex Michx.
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| Neosho County, Kansas |
| Perennial |
| Height: 8-20 inches |
| Family: Rosaceae - Rose Family |
| Flowering Period: April, May, June |
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| Also Called: | | Common cinquefoil, old-field five-fingers. | | Stems: | | Initially erect or ascending, later prostrate, arching or rooting at tip, sometimes reddish, branching, stiff-hairy. | | Leaves: | | Alternate, palmately 5-foliolate, occasionally 3-4-foliolate, stiff-hairy; leaflets oblanceolate, to elliptic, .8 to 2.8 inches long, usually less than 1/2 as wide; upper surface green, lower surface sometimes whitish; margins sharply toothed; stalks long, spreading-pubescent; stipules conspicuous, .2 to 1.2 inches long. | | Inflorescences: | | Solitary flowers on slender stalks from axils of leaves. | | Flowers: | | 2/5 to 3/5 inch broad, yellow; bracts subtending calyx 5, narrower than but nearly as long as sepals, alternating with sepals; sepals 5, triangular-lanceolate, 1/6 to 1/4 inch long; petals 5, egg-shaped, 1/6 to 1/4 inch long, yellow, tips rounded or with slight notch; stamens 20. | | Fruits: | | Head of achenes; achenes tiny, somewhat kidney-shaped, yellowish-brown, glabrous, obscurely ribbed, enclosing 1 seed. | | Habitat: | | Dry, sandy or rocky open woods, prairie hillsides, fallow fields, roadsides, fence-rows, and waste places. | | Distribution: | | Principally the east 1/3 of Kansas. | | Uses: | | Native Americans used a tea of steeped roots to treat dysentery, fevers, and stomach ulcers. It was also used as a gargle to treat sore throats and gum disorders. | | | | Related to Sulphur cinquefoil . |
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| Old-field cinquefoil flower |  | | 30 KB | | Cherokee County, Kansas |
| | Old-field cinquefoil leaf |  | | 72 KB | | Cherokee County, Kansas |
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