Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses

BROOK CINQUEFOIL

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Potentilla rivalis Nutt.

Riley County, Kansas

Annual, biennial, or perennial

Height: 8-28 inches

Family: Rosaceae - Rose Family

Flowering Period: May, June, July, August, September

Also Called:

River cinquefoil.

Stems:

Decumbent to ascending or erect, branched from base, glabrate or soft-pubescent to villous.

Leaves:

Alternate, cauline; stipules ovate to lanceolate, 1/4 to 1/2 inch; petiole 0 to 2.4 inches; blade pinnately or palmately compound; leaflets 3-5, obovate to oblanceolate or oblong, 2/5 to 2 inches long, 1/5 to 1 inch wide, margins crenate-serrate, tip blunt, lower surface pubescent to villous, upper surface glabrous.

Inflorescences:

Mostly terminal, 15-30-flowered cymes

Flowers:

Pedicels 0 to 1 inch; bractlets immediately subtending the calyx 5, elliptic, 1/12 to 1/4 inch; sepals 5, ovate-triangular, 1/12 to 1/8 inch; petals 5, pale yellow, cuneate-obovate to oblanceolate, 1/20 to 1/8 inch; stamens (5)-10(-15).

Fruits:

Achenes yellowish brown, ca. 1/32 inch, usually smooth, sometimes rugose, without corky appendage along inner margin.

Habitat:

Shores of ponds and lakes, river and stream banks, marshes, ditches, and swales

Distribution:

Scattered throughout Kansas

Origin:

Native

Comments:

Potentilla, potent and little, alluding to the medicinal properties of some species and rivalis, of brooksides.

Brook cinquefoil