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Western Wetland Flora

Field Office Guide to Plant Species

Varileaf Cinquefoil
Potentilla diversifolia Lehm.

JPG -- Species Photo JPG -- Distribution Map

Family: Rose (Rosaceae)
Flowering: July-August
Field Marks: This cinquefoil has basal leaves palmately divided into 5 or 7 sharply toothed leaflets and yellow flowers 1 inch across with about 20 stamens.
Habitat: Along streams, in rocky woods, wet meadows.
Habit: Perennial herb with a thickened rootstock.
Stems: Upright, rather slender, up to 3 feet tall, smooth or with appressed hairs.
Leaves: Mostly palmately divided into 5 or 7 leaflets, rarely pinnately divided, the leaflets obovate to oblanceolate, up to 2 inches long, pointed or rounded at the tip, tapering to the base, sharply toothed, usually somewhat hairy.
Flowers: Several in cymes; flowers subtended by small, lanceolate bracts up to 1/4 inch long.
Sepals: 5, green, united below to form a tube (hypanthium), the lobes ovate to lanceolate, up to 1/4 inch long.
Petals: 5, yellow, free from each other, up to 1/2 inch long.
Stamens: About 20.
Pistils: Many, each with a superior ovary.
Fruits: Achenes several in a cluster, smooth, up to 1/16 inch long, pale brown.
Notes: This species is rather variable in the shape and number of leaflets.

Previous Species -- Tall Cinquefoil (Potentilla arguta)
Return to Species List -- Group 6
Next Species -- Gland Cinquefoil (Potentilla glandulosa)

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