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Photo is of parent taxon

blue-leaf cinquefoil, diverse-leaf cinquefoil, mountain meadow cinquefoil

Stems

(0.5–)1–3(–4.5) dm.

Basal leaves

palmate, rarely subpalmate;

distal 1/3–1/2(–2/3) of leaflet margins incised 1/3–1/2 to midvein, undivided medial blade 3–7(–10) mm wide, teeth broadly lanceolate.

2n

= 42, 90, 91, 101.

Potentilla glaucophylla var. glaucophylla

Phenology Flowering summer.
Habitat Edges of meadows, dry gravelly flats and slopes in montane to subalpine conifer woodlands, mixed grassland communities, alpine tundra
Elevation (0–)100–3500 m ((0–)300–11500 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AK; CA; CO; ID; MT; NV; OR; UT; WA; WY; AB; BC; LB; NT; SK; YT; Greenland
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Variety glaucophylla is widespread through much of western North America from southern Alaska, Yukon, and Northwest Territories south mainly in the high mountains to California, central Colorado, and Utah. The variety is also found on scattered mountain ranges in the Great Basin and is a provincial rarity in southwestern Saskatchewan. Greenland plants that have been called var. ranunculus are also included here, since we can find no morphologic differences in spite of the significant geographic disjunction. The most common phase is glabrate; hairy populations are primarily found in the Rocky Mountains and the Mount Angeles area of Clallam County, Washington.

The lower elevation is provided by the Greenland populations. The variety otherwise tends to occur at higher elevations, and to bloom somewhat earlier, than sympatric Potentilla gracilis, which is the species most often confused with var. glaucophylla.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Source FNA vol. 9, p. 152.
Parent taxa Rosaceae > subfam. Rosoideae > tribe Potentilleae > Potentilla > sect. Graciles > Potentilla glaucophylla
Sibling taxa
P. glaucophylla var. perdissecta
Synonyms P. diversifolia subsp. ranunculus, P. diversifolia var. ranunculus, P. ranunculus
Name authority unknown
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