Creeping cinquefoil

Description

Potentilla reptans, known as the creeping cinquefoil, European cinquefoil or creeping tormentil, is a flowering plant in the family Rosaceae. A creeping perennial plant native to Eurasia and Northern Africa, Potentilla reptans has been naturalized elsewhere. Its trailing stems root at the nodes, and leaves are on long stalks. The plant blooms between June and August with yellow flowers that are about 2 cm in diameter and have five heart-shaped petals. P. reptans, which can be easily confused with silverweed, often grows in crushed masonry in the South of England. The grizzled skipper butterfly favors the plant. Alcoholic extracts from roots of Potentilla reptans showed a moderate antimicrobial activity against common wound pathogens. Potentilla reptans can be an invasive weed in lawns and flowerbeds and difficult to eradicate, particularly when it competes with and infests established groundcovers. All of the taproots must be dug up, or the plant will reappear. Potentilla is a genus containing over 300 species of annual, biennial and perennial herbaceous flowering plants in the rose family, Rosaceae. Potentillas may also be called cinquefoils in English, but they have also been called five fingers and silverweeds. Some species are called tormentils, though this is often used specifically for common tormentil (P. erecta). Others are referred to as barren strawberries, which may also refer to P. sterilis in particular, or to the closely related Waldsteinia fragarioides. Several other cinquefoils formerly included here are now separated in distinct genera - notably the popular garden shrub P. fruticosa, now Dasiphora fruticosa. Potentillas are generally found throughout the northern continents of the world (holarctic), though some occur in montane biomes of the New Guinea Highlands.