Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses - Sulphur cinquefoil

SULPHUR CINQUEFOIL

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Potentilla recta L.

Cloud County, Kansas

Perennial

Height: 12- 30 inches

Family: Rosaceae - Rose Family

Flowering Period: May, June

Stems:

Erect, 1-3, stout, simple to inflorescence, coarsely hairy.

Leaves:

Alternate, long-stalked below, nearly sessile above, palmately compound; leaflets 3-7, narrowly oblanceolate, 1-3 inches long, more or less coarsely hairy, pale below, middle leaflet longest; margins strongly toothed; tips blunt; stipules conspicuous, lanceolate to ovate, 1/2 to 1 inch long.

Inflorescences:

Cymes, many-flowered, terminal; branches ascending.

Flowers:

1/2 to 1 inch wide; sepals 5, lanceolate, alternating with 5 narrowly lanceolate bracts; petals 5, 1/4 to 1/2 inch long, sulphur yellow; tips deeply notched; stamens 20-30.

Fruits:

Achenes, ovate to kidney-shaped, small, distinctly ribbed, dark brown to reddish purple, enclosing 1 tiny seed.

Habitat:

Roadsides, waste areas, old fields, and pastures.

Distribution:

East 1/2 of Kansas.

Origin:

Introduced

Uses:

Native Americans applied the crushed leaves and stems of sulphur cinquefoil to open wounds and sores. Deer and sheep eat sulphur cinquefoil.

Comments:

This species occurs widely in Europe and is a serious weed in the northern Great Plains.