SHRUBBY CINQUEFOIL

Potentilla fruticosa

Rose Family [Rosaceae]

month8may month8jun month8june month8jul month8july month8aug month8sep month8sept month8oct

status
statusZnative
flower
flower8yellow
inner
inner8orange
morph
morph8actino
petals
petalsZ5
stem
stem8round
sex
sexZdioecious

30th Aug 2010, 1m E of Nob End, MB&B canal, Gtr M/cr. Photo: © RWD
A deciduous shrub growing to 1m high (or low as the case may be here). The flowers are in singles to groups of many.


30th Aug 2010, 1m E of Nob End, MB&B canal, Gtr M/cr. Photo: © RWD
The leaves are in either 5's to 7's, but as low as in 3's or as high as in 9's. Here there are 6 flowers in a group, 4 of them spent having lost their petals.


30th Aug 2010, 1m E of Nob End, MB&B canal, Gtr M/cr. Photo: © RWD
With 5 yellow and rounded petals. The leaves are hairy making them appear greyish-green.


30th Aug 2010, 1m E of Nob End, MB&B canal, Gtr M/cr. Photo: © RWD
The 5 outer sepals beneath the flower are wider than the 5 inner sepals.


30th Aug 2010, 1m E of Nob End, MB&B canal, Gtr M/cr. Photo: © RWD
The petals are between 6 to 16mm long. Flowers have many orange anthers. Functionally, the flowers are dioecious, although they may appear to have both sexes in the same flower, one or those sexes will be infertile, with different sexes being infertile for each flower, male, or female.


30th Aug 2010, 1m E of Nob End, MB&B canal, Gtr M/cr. Photo: © RWD
This is a tight cluster of flowers, many spent with their petals having dropped off.


30th Aug 2010, 1m E of Nob End, MB&B canal, Gtr M/cr. Photo: © RWD
The hairy sepals ans stems.


30th Aug 2010, 1m E of Nob End, MB&B canal, Gtr M/cr. Photo: © RWD
The brown stems have bark which is stringy and flakes off.


30th Aug 2010, 1m E of Nob End, MB&B canal, Gtr M/cr. Photo: © RWD
The leaves are pinnate, meaning they are in opposite pairs apart from the terminal leaf. The leaflet are toothless but do have hairs making them appear hoary-green.


Easily confused with : Flower () [plants with similar names belonging to differing families]

Not to be semantically confused with : Shrubby Orache (Atriplex halimus), Shrubby Hare's-ear (Bupleurum fruticosum), Shrubby Scorpion-vetch (Coronilla valentina), Shrubby Mayweed (Oncosiphon suffruticosum), Shrubby Dewplant (Ruschia caroli) nor with Shrubby Sea-Blite (Suaeda vera) [plants with similar names belonging to differing families].

Uniquely identifiable characteristics

Distinguishing Feature : See text

Taxonomists have recently invented a brand new Genus for this flower, Dasiphora, its name being changed to Dasiphora fruticosa, but your Author has not put this under its now correct name because it is a lot of work creating a brand new genus name on my website without entering that name in all the many pages it must then go, and there is only this one flower which will occupy the new Dasiphora genus... And, who knows, in another 10 years they might have changed their minds again... Readers will have to get used to it's common name, Shrubby Cinquefoil, which will not keep changing.


  Potentilla fruticosa  ⇐ Global Aspect ⇒ Rosaceae  

Distribution
 family8Rose family8Rosaceae
 BSBI maps
genus8Potentilla
Potentilla
(Potentilla)

SHRUBBY CINQUEFOIL

Potentilla fruticosa

Rose Family [Rosaceae]