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Potentilla
pensylvanica variety pensylvanica (Pennsylvania Cinquefoil) Rosaceae (Rose Family) Foothills to subalpine. Meadows,
rocky knolls.
Summer. Potentilla pensylvanica, a highly variable species, is uncommon in the Four Corners area. There is disagreement on a number of its characteristics and on its habitat. Depending on which authority one looks at, the plant is said to grow from two to twenty inches tall. It can be decumbent or erect, glandular or not, coarsely toothed to narrowly lobed, etc. There is not even agreement on what elevations it is found at: Intermountain Flora states that it grows at subalpine and alpine elevations; Utah Flora has it from Sagebrush to upper montane; and Weber has it from "moist bottomlands to ... alpine ridges". The photos show it at 10,000 feet on rocky, treeless knolls. It is a handsome plant no matter how confused botanists are by it. Linnaeus named the species in 1767 from a specimen collected in Canada. The plant is not found in Pennsylvania. Perhaps the name is from the Latin, "pen" ("nearly") and "sylvan" ("woods"). |
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Potentilla
pensylvanica variety pensylvanica (Pennsylvania Cinquefoil) Rosaceae (Rose Family) Foothills to subalpine. Meadows,
rocky knolls.
Summer. Flowers are small, clustered, and yellow; leaves are mostly basal. |
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Potentilla
pensylvanica
variety pensylvanica (Pennsylvania Cinquefoil) Rosaceae (Rose Family) Foothills to subalpine. Meadows,
rocky knolls.
Summer. Seed heads have their own beauty. |
Range map © John Kartesz,
County Color Key
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Range map for Potentilla pensylvanica |