Potentilla pensylvanica

           
Prairie Cinquefoil

Whole Plant on Velvet

Rowan's Ravine Provincial Park
02-July-05

Note that the key to the species in Flora of Alberta requires that P. pensylvanica have  "leaves generally with 5-9 leaflets", not "leaves generally with 9-21 leaflets".  This specimen has a basal leaf with 11 leaflets.  This is consistent with Flora of the Great Plains which describes P. pensylvanica as having basal leaves with 5-19 leaflets.

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Pensylvanica: Answers to key questions in Budd's Flora and Flora of Alberta leading to this species.  
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plant herb-like; NOT shrubby, NOT with woody base

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perennial plant with stout rootstock, often showing old bases of leaves; NOT [annual or biennial plant without perennial rootstocks]

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plants of drier habitats; NOT [a decumbent plant of aquatic and marshy habitats]

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plants WITHOUT runners

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stems mostly 10-50 cm high; NOT mostly 5-15 cm high

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plants usually NOT glandular-hairy

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plants NOT appressed strigose hairy throughout

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woolly velutinous to densely sericeous below; but lacking underlying crinkly hairs; NOT [sericeous below with underlying or marginal crinkly hairs]

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basal leaves pinnate; NOT [trifoliate or 5-9-digitate]

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leaflets separate, the leaves distinctly pinnate; NOT [leaflets often approximate, the leaves appearing subdigitate]

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basal leaves generally with 5-9 leaflets; NOT [generally with 9-21 leaflets]

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leaflets white or a different shade of green below; NOT green on both sides (Budd's Flora)

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leaves with abundant appressed to spreading sericeous hairs on lower surface; leaves NOT [green above and below] (Flora of Alberta)

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leaves densely woolly-hairy below, conspicuously veined above; NOT [leaflets sparsely hairy, mostly on veins] (Flora of Alberta)

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lower surface of leaves NOT densely white tomentose, NOT [tomentose and overlain with sericeous hairs] (Flora of Alberta)

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leaves grayish pilose to hirsute below; NOT white tomentose below (Budd's Flora)

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leaflets pale green or grayish pilose to glandular below; NOT white tomentose below (Budd's Flora)

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flowers few-many, in terminal cymes; NOT [solitary on naked peduncles, mostly from nodes of stolons]

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bractlets about as long as sepals; NOT much longer than sepals

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bractlets mostly narrower than sepals; NOT [as wide as or wider than sepals]

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petals yellow; NOT white, NOT yellowish white, NOT reddish purple

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petals generally longer than sepals; NOT [as long as or slightly shorter than the sepals]

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petals somewhat longer than sepals; NOT much longer than sepals

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petals 4-6 mm long; NOT 3-5 mm long

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stamens 5-20; NOT 25-30

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styles arising near top of ovary; styles NOT nearly basal in origin

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styles tapered from base; styles NOT slender-fusiform

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achenes generally smooth; NOT hairy

 
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Potentilla: Answers to key questions in Budd's Flora and Flora of Alberta leading to this genus.
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herbs, or with a woody base and otherwise herbaceous; NOT shrubs, NOT trees

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leaves compound; NOT [simple, usually toothed]

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leaves NOT much dissected into linear lobes

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basal leaves with more than 3 leaflets

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hypanthium LACKING hooked prickles

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calyx double, with 2 rings of lobes, the outer ones smaller than the inner; calyx NOT [simple, of 5 lobes]

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petals usually longer than the sepals; petals NOT [small, little if any longer than the sepals]

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stamens 10-many; NOT 5

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carpels 10-many; NOT 5-20, NOT 2 (Flora of Alberta)

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style articulated at base and deciduous from the achene; NOT jointed near the middle, NOT [hooked or plumose], NOT persisting in the fruit

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style much shorter than the achene; NOT [much longer than the achene]

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carpels becoming achenes (sometimes on a fleshy receptacle); carpels NOT [becoming druplets (raspberry-like)]

 

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Rosaceae: Answers to key questions in Budd's Flora leading to this family.
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herbs; NOT shrubs, NOT trees

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plants terrestrial or semi-aquatic; plants NOT aquatic, leaves NOT submerged, leaves NOT floating

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plants NOT with colored milky juice

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plants with more than one normal leaf

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some or all leaves alternate

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leaves with stipules

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flowers with two floral rings, and with each petal distinct from the others

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flowers regular in shape

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calyx regular

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stamens usually separate or partly so; NOT in a column

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stamens usually numerous; NOT [5 or 10]

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ovary of one or more carpels, either separate or enclosed by a fleshy receptacle; NOT ovary of 5 united carpels