Potentilla wheeleri

Wheeler's cinquefoil, Wheeler's Cinquefoil

Family: Rosaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Wheeler's cinquefoil is a California native perennial found in southern Sierra Nevada, San Bernardino Mountains, and San Jacinto Mountains on sandy, relatively moist flats at elevations of 1,800 to 3,500 meters. Flowering from May to August, this plant produces white flowers with petals 3 to 6 millimeters long in clusters of more than 5 blooms. Growing with prostrate to decumbent stems 2 to 25 centimeters tall, it forms rosetted to tufted clumps from a thick taproot. Its palmate leaves have 5 leaflets, with the central leaflet 5 to 25 millimeters long, wedge-shaped and distally toothed along about one-quarter of its length. The small fruits are pale and slightly veined, measuring 1 to 1.5 millimeters long.

Habitat: Sandy, +- moist flats

Bloom period: May-Aug

Elevation: 1800-3500 m

Bioregions: s SNH, SnBr, SnJt.

California counties: San Bernardino, Tulare, Inyo, Kern, Riverside, Tuolumne, Fresno, Mono

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