Slender Cinquefoil

Potentilla longipedunculata Rydb. Mem. Dep. Bot. Columbia
Univ. 2 : 39. 1898.
Perennial, by a creeping rootstock; stems 4-5 dm. high, ascending, villous with long silky white hairs, rather weak, and dichotomously branched, with solitary long-pedicel ed flowers in the axils of the branches ; stipules rather large, about 2 cm. long, oblonglanceolate ; leaves digitately 3~5-foliolate, slightly silky and green above, densely whitetomentose beneath; petioles slender, 4-6 cm. long; leaflets oblanceolate, 3-5 cm. long, dissected halfway to the midrib into oblong-lanceolate divergent segments ; pedicels solitary in the axils of the leaves, almost 1 dm. long, slender, silkyvillous with spreading long hairs ; flowers 2 cm. in diameter ; sepals and bractlets subequal, oblong-lanceolate, almost equaling the broadly cuneate, scarcely at all emarginate, yellow petals ; stamens about 20 ; pistils very few ; receptacle unusually hairy ; styles filiform but not very slender.
Type locality : Monmouth, Oregon. Distribution : Known only from the type locality.

Potentilla macropetala Rydberg, sp. nov
Perennial, with a tap-root and short caudex ; stem sparingly strigose, ascending or decumbent at the base, 2-4 dm. high ; basal leaves usually 5-foliolate ; petioles 3-8 cm. long, sparingly strigose; leaflets, especially the middle ones, cuneate, coarsely toothed above the middle, entire at the base, green, appressed-pubescent on both sides with short hairs and sometimes also somewhat puberulent beneath ; stem-leaves 2 or 3, ternate, subsessile ; stipules lanceolate, entire, 1-1.5 cm. long ; inflorescence few-flowered ; hypanthium silky, in fruit 8 mm. broad; bractlets linear-lanceolate, 4-5 mm. long; sepals lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, 6-8 mm. long; petals broadly obcordate, 1 cm. long or more; stamens about 20; pistils many; styles filiform.
Type collected at Tillamook, Oregon, 1894, F. E. Lloyd (herb. N. Y. Bot. Gard.). Distribution : From Oregon south to the Mexican boundary, but rare.

Potentilla gracilis DougL; Hook. Bot. Mag. pL 2984. 1830
Perennial, with a short caudex ; stem 4-7 dm. high, slender, slightly silky-villous, with erector ascending branches ; stipules lanceolate, 1-3 cm. long, entire, or with 1 or 2 teeth ; basal leaves digitate with 5-7 leaflets; petioles slender, 1-1.5 dm. long, with spreading pubescence ; leaflets 3-6 cm. long, oblanceolate, green and nearly glabrous above, densely and finely white-tomentose beneath, divided about halfway to the midrib into lanceolatetriangular coarse teeth ; stem-leaves similar but with shorter petioles ; cyme rather narrow ; hypanthium long-silky, in fruit 8-10 mm. in diameter; corolla 15-20 mm. in diameter; petals obcordate, deeply emarginate, often over 1 cm. long, much exceeding the sepals; bractlets lanceolate, a little shorter than the ovate acuminate sepals, which are 6-7 mm. long ; stamens about 20 ; pistils many ; styles filiform.
Type locality : Banks of Columbia River.
Distribution : British Columbia to western Montana and Oregon.

Potentilla gracilis, known as slender cinquefoil or graceful cinquefoil, is a species of cinquefoil. It ranges from Alaska down the west coast of Canada and the United States, and Colorado.

Named varieties are:

Potentilla gracilis var. elmeri (Rydb.) Jeps. – combleaf cinquefoil Potentilla gracilis var. flabelliformis (Lehm.) Nutt.

This perennial herb is variable in morphology, growing several erect stems up to a meter tall from a branching caudex and rhizome unit. The leaves are palmate and compound, each divided into five to seven wide lance-shaped leaflets with toothed edges. The leaflets are hairy, with many more hairs on the undersides, making them lighter in color than the top surfaces. The basal leaves are borne on very long petioles. Leaves higher on the stem are smaller and reduced. The inflorescence is a cyme of several flowers, each with usually five sepals, lower bracts, and yellow petals.

It is a larval host to the two-banded checkered skipper.