Potentilla pensylvanica

Prairie cinquefoil, Prairie Cinquefoil

Family: Rosaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Prairie cinquefoil is a California native perennial found in central Sierra Nevada and White and Inyo Mountains in rocky alpine barrens at elevations of 2,700 to 3,800 meters. Flowering from July to August, this plant produces pale yellow or white flowers approximately 3 to 5 millimeters wide in compact clusters of 3 to 10 blooms. Growing with ascending to erect stems 8 to 25 centimeters tall, it forms a tufted plant with a branched caudex and densely short-spreading hairs. Its pinnate basal leaves have 3 to 6 leaflets per side, each 10 to 25 millimeters long, with elliptic-oblanceolate shape and nearly evenly toothed margins that are rolled slightly under. The compact plant bears small fruits 1 to 1.5 millimeters long that are slightly veined and brown.

Habitat: Rocky alpine barrens

Bloom period: Jul-Aug

Elevation: 2700-3800 m

Bioregions: c&amps SNH, W&ampI

California counties: Mono, Inyo, Fresno, Tuolumne

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