Sulfur or Rough-Fruited Cinquefoil, Potentilla recta
Rosaceae or Rose Family
Erect plant, to 2 ft tall. Leaves with 5 to 7 leaflets arranged like fingers (palmate). Leaflets strongly toothed and strongly veined. Flowers pale yellow, with 5 heart-shaped petals.
Blooms in summer.
Alien plant of dry fields and roadsides, considered a noxious weed in some states. Occaional in Wildwood, mostly in the South Meadow area.
The strongly toothed palmate leaves and 5-petaled yellow flowers mark this as a cinquefoil. The native common cinquefoil (P. simplex) and Canada cinquefoil (P. canadensis) are weak, sprawling plants with bright yellow flowers. Rough or Norwegian cinquefoil (P. norvegica) has only three leaflets. |