Potentilla anglica

English cinquefoil

Family: Rosaceae · Type: perennial · Not Native

English cinquefoil is a naturalized perennial found in the San Joaquin Valley, San Francisco Bay Area, and Peninsular Ranges on streambanks at elevations of 40 to 160 meters. Flowering from May to September, this plant produces white to yellow flowers about 3 to 8 millimeters long. Growing with tufted stems spreading via stolons, it forms low-growing clusters with distinctive palmate leaves. Its leaves have 3 to 5 leaflets, with the central leaflet typically 10 to 25 millimeters long, wedge-shaped to obovate and distally toothed along the upper margin. The plant bears small brown fruits approximately 1.5 to 2 millimeters long, characteristic of its cinquefoil lineage.

Habitat: Streambanks

Bloom period: May-Sep

Elevation: 40-160 m

Bioregions: ScV, SnFrB, PR

California counties: Marin, San Francisco, Mendocino, Sacramento, Butte, San Diego, San Luis Obispo, Riverside, Fresno

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.