Shrubby cinquefoil is a native shrub with bright yellow, five-petaled flowers that keep coming nearly all summer. It grows wild in Alaska, across the West, around the Great Lakes, and in the Northeast, and it's also widely planted in city and commercial landscaping. Many gardeners still know it by its older name, Potentilla.
Appearance
- Appearance
- Older bark is shreddy and peels in long thin strips. Young stems and leaves are covered in silky, silvery hairs.
- Growth form
- A deciduous shrub usually 4 in to 3 ft (0.1–1 m) tall, upright to sprawling or flat on the ground.
- Leaves
- Each leaf usually has five narrow leaflets, about 3/8–1 in (1–2.5 cm) long, with smooth edges.
- Flowers
- Bright yellow flowers about 1 in (2–3 cm) across, with five petals and a cluster of 20 or so stamens.
- Flowering time
- In the US it blooms from late May into late September, with a peak in July.
- Fruit
- A cluster of small, hairy seeds () that ripen from late summer to early fall.
Where it lives
- Typical habitats
- Fens and wet meadows
- Stream banks and springs
- Subalpine and alpine slopes
- Rock ledges
- Range
- Grows wild in 33 states: Alaska; the West from Washington, Montana, and the Dakotas south to California, Arizona, and New Mexico; the Great Lakes states and Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio; and the Northeast from Maine to Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and West Virginia. It also grows across Canada, and in Europe and northern Asia.
- Preferred conditions
- Grows from prairie and foothills up to alpine ridges, usually in open, sunny spots and often where the soil stays moist, such as fens and wet meadows.
- Flowering
Flowers May–Sep
Flowers May–Sep
Life cycle
- Seed dispersal
- Seeds are carried by the wind. Low-lying stems can also take root where they touch the ground.
Growing it
- Care
- Hardy and low-maintenance, and it blooms almost continuously through summer. Deer seldom browse it, so it's recommended for landscaping in deer winter range.
Name and classification
- About the name
- Long called Potentilla fruticosa, the name you'll still see on many nursery tags. North American plants are often treated as their own subspecies, floribunda, though not every classification separates them.
- Varieties and forms
- More than 130 named cultivars exist, with white, yellow, orange, or pink flowers. 'Abbotswood' (large white flowers) and 'Pink Beauty' (deep pink) are among the best known. Many garden plants actually come from related Chinese and Himalayan species or hybrids.
Conservation
- IUCN Red List
- NENot EvaluatedNot yet assessed
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