Drummond's Cinquefoil

Potentilla drummondii Lehm. Stirp. Pug. 2 : 9. 1830
Potentilla dissecla S. Wats. Proc. Am. Acad. 8: 556, in part. 1873. Potentilla dissecta Drummondii Kurtz, Bot. Jahrb. 19 : 374. 1894.
Perennial, with a short caudex ; stem erect, 3-6 dm. high, slightly hairy, few-leaved, branched above; stipules about 2 cm. long, ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, veined, subentire; basal leaves pinnate, hairy, especially when young; petioles 5-10 cm. long, slightly strigose ; leaflets 5-11, somewhat crowded, often verticillate and the upper confluent, veined, 2-6 cm. long, obovate-cuneate, deeply and sharply serrate with linear-oblong or lanceolate acute teeth ; stem-leaves 1-5-foliolate, short-petioled or subsessile ; flowers long-pedicelled ; hypanthium hirsute, veined, in fruit 7-9 mm. broad ; bractlets lanceolate, shorter than the ovate-lanceolate acuminate sepals, which are 6-7 mm. long ; petals 6-10 mm. long, obcordate, longer than the sepals ; stamens about 20 ; pistils many ; styles filiform.
Type locality : [Not given in the original publication, but supplied in Hooker's Flora.] Mountains, north of the Smoking River, in latitude 56°.
Distribution : Mountains of Alberta and British Columbia to northern California.

Potentilla drummondii is a species of cinquefoil known by the common name Drummond's cinquefoil. It is native to North America from Alaska to California, where it grows in many types of moist habitat. It is perhaps better described as a species complex containing many intergrading subspecies that readily hybridize with other Potentilla species. The plant is variable, growing decumbent or erect, small and tufted or up to 60 centimeters tall, hairless to woolly. The leaves are divided into several leaflets, which may be cut into lobes or toothed. The inflorescence is a cyme of several flowers. Each has a small corolla of yellow petals, each petal one half to one centimeter in length.