Potentilla grayi

Gray's cinquefoil

Family: Rosaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Gray's cinquefoil is a California native perennial found in the Sierra Nevada Mountains in alpine and subalpine meadows at elevations of 2,000 to 2,800 meters. Flowering from July to September, this plant produces white flowers with petals 4 to 7 millimeters long in small clusters of 1 to 5 blooms. Growing with ascending stems 10 to 20 centimeters tall, it forms a compact tuft or rosette from a short rhizome or taproot with sparsely strigose stems. Its distinctive ternate leaves have three leaflets, with the central leaflet 10 to 25 millimeters long, obovate in shape and evenly notched with 7 teeth along one-quarter to one-half of its length. The small fruits are light brown, smooth, and approximately 1.2 to 1.5 millimeters long.

Habitat: Meadows

Bloom period: Jul-Sep

Elevation: 2000-2800 m

Bioregions: SNH.

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