description
Cinquefoil is an herbaceous flowering perennial in the Rosaceae, or Rose
family. It is a low, clumb-forming plant with slender, procumbent to upright
stalks, growing 10–30 cm. tall and with non-rooting runners.
This plant flowers from May to August/September. There is one yellow, 7–11 mm wide
flower, growing at the tip of a long stalk. There are almost always four
notched petals, each with a length between 3 and 6 mm. Four petals are
rather uncommon in the rose family. The petals are somewhat longer than the
sepals. There are 20-25 stamens. The glossy leaves are pinnately compound.
The radical leaves have a long petiole, while the leaves on the stalks are
usually sessile and have sometimes shorter petioles. Each leaf consists of
three obovate leaflets with serrate leaf margins. The stipules are leaflike
and palmately lobed.
There are 2-8 dry, inedible fruits.
common names & nomenclature
Cinquefoil comes from the Middle English cinkfoil, which means “five leaf”.
Also known as:
five fingers, synkefoyle, five-finger blossom, sunkfield. potentilla canadensis, european five finger grass, finger grass, five finger grass finger leaf, tormentil, tormentilla erecta, potentilla tormentilla, tormentil root, septfoil, potentilla tormentilla stokes, potentilla sylvestris neck. aert-bark, barr braonan-nan-con, biscuits, blood-root, braonan bachlag, braonan fraoch, braonan nan con, cairt làir, eartbar, earthbank, earth-barth, ewe daisy, ewe-daisy, flesh and blood, leamhnach, leanartach, leannartach, shepherd's knot, shepherd's knapperty, star flower, thormantle, tormenting root