Potentilla recta L.

Sulphur Cinquefoil; Sulphur Five Fingers; Rough Fruit Cinquefoil

Herb

Perennial

Vascular

Sulphur Cinquefoil is an introduced herbaceous perennial in the Rose family (Rosaceae). It is native to Europe and western Asia and can be found statewide in Alabama, although it is most common in the northeastern part of the state. Sulphur Cinquefoil occurs on roadsides, in fallow fields, and along railroads. It is a perennial with a hardened crown, a basal rosette of leaves, and several erect stems. The leaves are basal or alternate, petiolate, pubescent, and palmately compound with 5-9 leaflets. The leaflets are oblanceolate to spathulate in outline, pubescent, with serrate margins. Flowers are in compound cymes. Each flower has five sepals, and five light yellow petals. Flowers have 20-30 stamens and numerous pistils. The fruit is an achene. Sulphur Cinquefoil is listed as a noxious weed in much of North America. It aggressively invades both natural and disturbed habitats.—A. Diamond

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Not Native

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