The green links below add additional plants to the comparison table. Blue links lead to other Web sites.
enable glossary links

Hipp's cinquefoil, horse cinquefoil, potentille de Hipp, woolly cinquefoil

high arctic cinquefoil

Habit Plants usually cushion-forming.
Caudex branches

stout, columnar, sheathed with marcescent whole leaves.

Stems

(0.3–)2–4(–5) dm, lengths (1–)2–4 times basal leaves.

erect, 0.2–0.6(–1.1) dm, lengths 2–4 times basal leaves.

Basal leaves

pinnate to subpinnate, (3–)5–15(–25) cm;

petiole 1–10(–15) cm, long hairs abundant to dense, tightly appressed, 1–2.5 mm, stiff, short hairs absent or obscured, crisped-cottony hairs absent or sparse to common, glands absent or obscured;

leaflets not conduplicate, lateral ones evenly (to unevenly in argyrea phase) paired, (2–)3–6(–7) per side on distal (1/6–)1/5–1/2 of leaf axis, distal pairs ± decurrent, often confluent with terminal leaflet, larger leaflets oblanceolate or narrowly obovate to oblong, 1–5(–6) × 0.3–1.5 cm, distal (2/3–)3/4 to whole margin incised 1/2 or less (rarely more) to midvein, teeth (5–)7–12(–18) per side, 1–4 mm, surfaces ± to strongly dissimilar, abaxial white, long hairs abundant (mostly on, but not limited to, veins), 1–2 mm, stiff, short hairs absent or obscured, crisped-cottony hairs abundant to dense, glands absent or obscured, adaxial green to grayish, long hairs sparse to common, rarely absent, short or crisped to, sometimes, cottony hairs absent or sparse to common, glands sparse.

0.5–2.5(–3) cm;

petiole 0.3–1.5(–2) cm, long hairs common to abundant, spreading to ascending, 1(–2) mm, ± weak, rarely stiff, smooth, crisped/short-cottony hairs usually absent, sometimes sparse, glands sparse to common;

leaflets separate to slightly overlapping, central obovate, 0.5–1.2(–1.5) × 0.4–0.9(–1) cm, subsessile to short-petiolulate, base cuneate, margins revolute, distal 1/2 incised 1/2–3/4 to midvein, teeth (1–)2–3(–4) per side, ± distant, surfaces ± dissimilar, abaxial grayish or yellowish white, long hairs 0.5–1 mm, cottony-crisped hairs ± dense (often obscured by long hairs), adaxial dark green to greenish gray, long hairs ± abundant, other hairs absent.

Cauline leaves

1–2(–3).

(0–)1(–2).

Inflorescences

10–30-flowered.

1(–2)-flowered.

Pedicels

0.3–3(–5) cm.

1–2(–3) cm in flower, to 5.5 cm in fruit.

Flowers

epicalyx bractlets narrowly elliptic to lanceolate, rarely linear, 2–5 × 0.5–1.5 mm, (1/2–)2/3 as long as sepals, abaxial vestiture similar to or ± sparser than sepals, usually not glabrescent, straight hairs ± abundant, crisped to sometimes ± cottony hairs absent or sparse to abundant;

hypanthium 3–7 mm diam.;

sepals 4–5.5(–6.5) mm, apex acute to acuminate;

petals 4–8 × 4–7 mm;

filaments 0.5–2.5 mm, anthers 0.6–1.1 mm;

carpels (5–)10–30, styles 1.7–2.5 mm.

epicalyx bractlets lanceolate to elliptic-ovate, rarely linear, 3–6(–7) × 0.8–2(–2.3) mm, (1/2–)2/3 to nearly as wide as sepals, margins flat or ± revolute, red glands absent;

hypanthium 2.5–4 mm diam.;

sepals 3–5(–6) mm, apex obtuse to subacute;

petals 4–8(–9) × 4–9 mm, longer than sepals;

filaments 1–1.3 mm, anthers 0.3–0.5 mm;

carpels 25–35, apical hairs absent, styles conic-columnar, ± papillate-swollen on less than proximal 1/5, 0.9–1.1 mm.

Achenes

1.4–1.8 mm, smooth to faintly rugose.

1.2–1.6 mm.

2n

= 42, 70, 77, 84, 98.

= 28 (Russian Far East).

Potentilla hippiana

Potentilla subvahliana

Phenology Flowering summer. Flowering late spring to summer.
Habitat Dry grasslands and meadows, in aspen and conifer woodlands or alpine tundra, disturbed sites Rocky alpine heaths, rock outcrops and crevices, scree and talus, dry tundra, coastal bluffs, stabilized sand dunes, usually on calcareous bedrock
Elevation 500–3400 m (1600–11200 ft) 0–1700 m (0–5600 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AZ; CO; ID; MI; MN; MT; ND; NE; NM; NV; SD; UT; WY; AB; BC; MB; NS; NT; ON; QC; SK
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
AK; AB; BC; NT; NU; QC; YT; Greenland; e Asia (Russian Far East)
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Potentilla hippiana is most common and distinctive in the Colorado Plateau and southern Rocky Mountains, with outliers in the mountains of Arizona, Nevada, and New Mexico. Occurrences are more scattered in the northern Rocky Mountains and Great Plains, where intergradation with P. effusa is common. Among these intermediates are the argyrea phase and the single report from Idaho (B. C. Johnston 1980). Potentilla hippiana is probably adventive in Nova Scotia, eastern Ontario, Quebec, and Michigan, and possibly the Northwest Territories. The reported occurrence in central Alaska (E. Hultén 1968) is based on a specimen of P. pensylvanica (CAN).

Significant variation exists throughout the range of Potentilla hippiana, including dwarfism, leaf division, leaflet dissection, adaxial leaflet vestiture, and pedicel length. Some of this variation might merit taxonomic recognition upon further analysis, especially if correlated with ploidy level (6x through 12x). At present, the differences used to distinguish var. argyrea are not found to be sufficiently correlated with distribution to merit formal taxonomic recognition.

Complicating the infraspecific variation is a tendency for Potentilla hippiana to intergrade with other species, in particular P. effusa. Beyond sect. Leucophyllae, the frequency of hybrids with P. pulcherrima blurs the distinction between the two species; P. gracilis var. hippianoides S. L. Welsh & N. D. Atwood is probably one of the resultant intermediates.

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

The major part of the range assigned to Potentilla vahliana by E. Hultén (1968) belongs to P. subvahliana.

Two morphologic types are present within what is accepted here as Potentilla subvahliana. Plants corresponding to the type of P. subvahliana (Wrangel Island) are widespread throughout northeastern Asia (Chukotka) and arctic North America to northwestern Greenland. Some plants in alpine Alaska, Yukon, and east to Amundsen Gulf, Nunavut, are redder, more densely columnar, and less hairy, with smaller leaves having fewer and narrower lobes, more slender one-flowered stems, narrow and entire bracts, narrower sepals, and much narrower epicalyx bractlets. Potentilla subvahliana is tetraploid, perhaps an allopolyploid, and could consist of lineages from different parental combinations.

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

Source FNA vol. 9, p. 162. FNA vol. 9, p. 203.
Parent taxa Rosaceae > subfam. Rosoideae > tribe Potentilleae > Potentilla > sect. Leucophyllae Rosaceae > subfam. Rosoideae > tribe Potentilleae > Potentilla > sect. Niveae
Sibling taxa
P. albiflora, P. ambigens, P. anachoretica, P. angelliae, P. anglica, P. anserina, P. arenosa, P. argentea, P. arizonica, P. basaltica, P. bicrenata, P. biennis, P. biflora, P. bimundorum, P. bipinnatifida, P. brevifolia, P. breweri, P. bruceae, P. brunnescens, P. canadensis, P. concinna, P. cottamii, P. crantzii, P. crebridens, P. crinita, P. cristae, P. demotica, P. drummondii, P. effusa, P. elegans, P. erecta, P. flabellifolia, P. fragiformis, P. furcata, P. glaucophylla, P. gracilis, P. grayi, P. hickmanii, P. holmgrenii, P. hookeriana, P. hyparctica, P. inclinata, P. intermedia, P. jepsonii, P. johnstonii, P. lasiodonta, P. litoralis, P. macounii, P. millefolia, P. modesta, P. morefieldii, P. multijuga, P. multisecta, P. nana, P. newberryi, P. nivea, P. norvegica, P. ovina, P. paucijuga, P. pedersenii, P. pensylvanica, P. plattensis, P. pseudosericea, P. pulchella, P. pulcherrima, P. recta, P. reptans, P. rhyolitica, P. rimicola, P. rivalis, P. robbinsiana, P. rubella, P. rubricaulis, P. sanguinea, P. saximontana, P. sierrae-blancae, P. simplex, P. sterilis, P. stipularis, P. subgorodkovii, P. subjuga, P. subvahliana, P. subviscosa, P. supina, P. thurberi, P. thuringiaca, P. tikhomirovii, P. townsendii, P. uliginosa, P. uschakovii, P. vahliana, P. verna, P. versicolor, P. villosa, P. villosula, P. vulcanicola, P. wheeleri
P. albiflora, P. ambigens, P. anachoretica, P. angelliae, P. anglica, P. anserina, P. arenosa, P. argentea, P. arizonica, P. basaltica, P. bicrenata, P. biennis, P. biflora, P. bimundorum, P. bipinnatifida, P. brevifolia, P. breweri, P. bruceae, P. brunnescens, P. canadensis, P. concinna, P. cottamii, P. crantzii, P. crebridens, P. crinita, P. cristae, P. demotica, P. drummondii, P. effusa, P. elegans, P. erecta, P. flabellifolia, P. fragiformis, P. furcata, P. glaucophylla, P. gracilis, P. grayi, P. hickmanii, P. hippiana, P. holmgrenii, P. hookeriana, P. hyparctica, P. inclinata, P. intermedia, P. jepsonii, P. johnstonii, P. lasiodonta, P. litoralis, P. macounii, P. millefolia, P. modesta, P. morefieldii, P. multijuga, P. multisecta, P. nana, P. newberryi, P. nivea, P. norvegica, P. ovina, P. paucijuga, P. pedersenii, P. pensylvanica, P. plattensis, P. pseudosericea, P. pulchella, P. pulcherrima, P. recta, P. reptans, P. rhyolitica, P. rimicola, P. rivalis, P. robbinsiana, P. rubella, P. rubricaulis, P. sanguinea, P. saximontana, P. sierrae-blancae, P. simplex, P. sterilis, P. stipularis, P. subgorodkovii, P. subjuga, P. subviscosa, P. supina, P. thurberi, P. thuringiaca, P. tikhomirovii, P. townsendii, P. uliginosa, P. uschakovii, P. vahliana, P. verna, P. versicolor, P. villosa, P. villosula, P. vulcanicola, P. wheeleri
Synonyms P. leucophylla, P. argyrea, P. effusa var. argyrea, P. hippiana var. argyrea, P. hippiana var. diffusa, P. propinqua
Name authority Lehmann: Nov. Stirp. Pug. 2: 7. (1830) — not Pallas 1773 Jurtzev: in A. I. Tolmatchew, Fl. Arct. URSS 9(1): 319. (1984)
Web links