Potentilla millefolia
Potentilla recta
cut-leaf cinquefoil, feather cinquefoil, feather or many-leaf or Klamath cinquefoil, many leaf cinquefoil
erect cinquefoil, potentille dressée, sulphur cinquefoil
usually prostrate, sometimes ± decumbent, 0.4–2(–3) dm, lengths 1–2 times basal leaves.
pinnate with distal leaflets ± confluent, 2–15(–20) × 1–3 cm;
petiole 0.5–2(–3) cm, straight hairs sparse to abundant, appressed to spreading, 0.5–1.5 mm, stiff, cottony hairs absent, glands absent or sparse;
primary lateral leaflets (3–)5–13 per side, on distal 2/3–3/4+ of leaf axis, separate to overlapping, largest ones cuneate to flabellate, 0.5–1.5(–2) × 0.5–2 cm, distal 2/3 to whole margin palmately or unevenly, rarely pinnately, incised 2/3 to completely to midvein, ultimate teeth or segments (1–)2–10, linear to broadly oblanceolate, 2–10 × (0.5–)1–2 mm, apical tufts to 1 mm, surfaces green to grayish green, not glaucous, straight hairs sparse to abundant, appressed to spreading, 0.5–1.5(–2) mm, stiff, cottony hairs absent, glands sparse to common.
(0–)1–2.
petiole (3–)4–8 cm, long hairs common, 2–4 mm, short hairs common to abundant;
leaflets 5–7, 1.5–10 × 0.5–3.5 cm, long hairs common, 0.5–2 mm abaxially, 1 mm and stiffly appressed adaxially, short hairs common on primary veins abaxially, glands sparse to common abaxially.
3–6(–10)-flowered, loosely cymose, sometimes racemiform.
(0.5–)1–2(–4.5) cm, ± recurved in fruit.
epicalyx bractlets ± elliptic, 2–4(–6) × 1–2(–2.5) mm;
hypanthium 3–6 mm diam.;
sepals 4–6(–8) mm, apex acute;
petals 4–8(–10) × 3–7(–9) mm;
filaments 2–3.5 mm, anthers 0.7–1 mm;
carpels 10–30, styles (1.5–)2–3 mm.
epicalyx bractlets narrowly lanceolate to lanceolate, 5–12 × 1–2 mm;
sepals 4–10(–12) mm, apex acute to acuminate;
petals (4–)7–10(–13) × 7–10 mm;
filaments 0.5–2.8 mm, anthers 0.8–1.2 mm;
carpels 80–140.
1.5–2 mm, smooth, often ± carunculate.
1.2–1.8 mm.
= 28, 42 (Eurasia).
Potentilla millefolia
Potentilla recta
Potentilla millefolia occurs from central Oregon to the east side of the Sierra Nevada of California, with a disjunct occurrence on the alkaline flats of Reese River Valley, Nevada. Significant variation occurs in vestiture type, leaflet dissection, and flower size, but with minimal geographic correlation. The most distinctive variant, represented by the type of P. klamathensis, has relatively long, slender, spreading, pustule-based hairs, often intermixed with shorter hairs. This vestiture type does not appear to be correlated with any other characters or geographic distribution and may vary within a population.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
The Potentilla recta species group is among the most complex in Europe and western Asia, with diverse taxonomic circumscriptions. The most conservative is adopted here (also used by P. W. Ball et al. 1968; J. Soják 2004), in which most variation is included in a broadly defined P. recta. An alternative is provided by A. Kurtto et al. (in J. Jalas et al. 1972+, vol. 13), who recognized six subspecies of P. recta and three additional species. The phase found in North America is rather uniform, corresponding to the pale-flowered sulphurea variant that Kurtto et al. included in subsp. recta. However, B. Boivin (1952, 1966b) accepted two additional varieties in Canada, locally naturalized in Ontario and Saskatchewan. Nomenclaturally these correspond to subsp. obscura and subsp. pilosa as recognized by Kurtto et al., but other than 5-foliate leaves in var. obscura (Boivin 1967–1979), the morphological basis for Boivin's taxonomic conclusions is unclear.
The earliest North American collection of Potentilla recta seen by the authors was gathered by C. W. Short as a weed in a garden in Montreal in 1852 (MO). It was encountered initially as a naturalized plant in New York in 1879, and by 1900 it was fairly widespread in New England before being found in Ontario, Canada. From there it spread rapidly throughout much of the northern United States and southern Canada (K. Zouhar, http://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/). It was in British Columbia by 1914, and in a Forest Service pasture in eastern Utah by 1924. The species is listed as a noxious weed in much of North America, spreading aggressively in both natural and disturbed habitats.
The species is often confused with the native, widespread Potentilla gracilis (sect. Graciles), but differs from the latter in having ephemeral basal leaves (often replaced by a new flush in later summer), pale yellow petals, and shorter styles. The long, stiff, spreading, tubercle-based hairs on stems and petioles of P. recta, overtopping a layer of short hairs and glands, also serve to distinguish this aggressive species from native P. gracilis at any stage of the life cycle. The leaves are also sometimes mistaken for Cannabis. The name P. recta is sometimes confused with P. erecta (Linnaeus) Raeuschel, a much different plant in sect. Potentilla.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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