Dwarf Cinquefoil (Potentilla canadensis L.)
Also known as running five-fingers, dwarf potentilla, old-field cinquefoil.
↑Summary
A native, creeping perennial of Eastern North America, occurring on dry to mesic, lightly-shaded sites with acidic soil.
↑Range - Expand
| Legend | Color |
| Native | |
| Native or Not Present |
This tentative map is based on our own research. It may have limited data on Canada and/or Mexico, and there is some subjectivity in our assignment of plants as introduced vs. expanded. Read more in this blog post.
Although this plant occurs somewhere in each of these regions, it may only occur in a small part of some or all of them.
↑Similar Plants
↑Habitat
Dwarf cinquefoil occurs in a variety of dry to mesic habitats, usually in partial sun to light shade, usually on acidic soil of low fertility. Natural habitats include dry meadows, savannas, woodland borders and clearings, especially of oak and/or conifer forests, and open rocky woods. Anthropogenic habitats include lawns, roadsides, and pastures or abandoned fields especially where soil is dry and acidic. It is often most common on disturbed sites, but it can occur in more stable barren sites such as shale barrens, where erosion creates disturbance on an ongoing basis, sites that burn regularly, or sites where rock outcroppings limit soil accumulation.
It tolerates a range of soil textures, including clay, loam, silt, sand, rocky or gravely soils. It requires good drainage, so on clay soils or thin soils over impermeable bedrock it is limited to slopes with good topographic drainage, whereas it can occur on flat sites on well-drained soils. It is often abundant on soils derived from chert, sandstone, or shale.
Dwarf cinquefoil prefers partial sun to light shade cast by an open tree canopy, but it has low tolerance for ground-level competition.
In lawns it can survive regular mowing, and it can become a dominant plant in dry parts of untreated lawns on acidic soils.
It is found on both sites that burn and those that do not, but it tends to benefit from fire, especially fire that removes competing herbaceous vegetation and restricts the tree canopy to species that cast only lighter shade.
↑Life Cycle
Dwarf cinquefoil is a low-growing, creeping perennial that reproduces both vegetatively and by seed.
Plants form a stout taproot and grow basal leaves, and then grow a stem that initially grows upright but soon leans or trails on the ground. The growth rate is slow and not usually sufficient to keep pace with competing vegetation other than moss or sparse, low grasses. The stem is usually unbranched, and will root at some nodes as it finds suitable conditions. In this manner the plant reproduces vegetatively.
Established plants flower in spring; first-year plants do not necessarily flower. The growth rate is variable mostly as a function of light.
Foliage is semievergreen in much of its range, evergreen on warm sites and in the south of its range, and deciduous in the north of its range and in cold and/or dry winters.
Healthy plants are fairly resistant to top-kill and will resprout following any disturbance that removes the leaves.
↑Faunal Associations
We found several casual sources saying that this plant is widely eaten by rabbits and groundhogs, but is resistant to deer browsing, but we have been unable to verify these claims in more scientific sources. The leaves are pressed tightly against the ground and are likely harder for herbivores to browse on than the other, more upright Potentilla species, and they also tend to be tougher and hairier on average.
We could not find an exhaustive study of the insects supported by this plant, but it tends to support a lot of insects relative to its size.
In the north of its range, the larvae of the northern grizzled skipper (Pyrgus centaureae) eat this plant; the adult lays eggs on it in May, and the larvae develop very slowly so that they are able to continue eating the plant as it develops, not pupating until late August. As that skipper is endangered in parts of its range and this plant is an important food source, protecting populations of this plant has been pointed to as a key part of protecting that skipper. The rush veneer (Nomophila noctuella) also eats this plant, among others.
The cinquefoil bud gall wasp (Diastrophus potentillae) forms galls on the stems of this and common cinquefoil (Potentilla simplex), and the larvae of the gall wasp Diastrophus niger forms galls on petioles and leaflet midribs. The aphid Anthracosiphon crystleae also feeds on the sap from the stolons.
↑Links & External Resources
• Potentilla canadensis (dwarf cinquefoil) | USDA PLANTS Database (About This Site)
• Potentilla canadensis | Go Botany (About This Site)
• Dwarf Cinquefoil | iNaturalist (About This Site)
• Potentilla canadensis | Biota of North America Project (BONAP) (About This Site)
• Potentilla canadensis | NatureServe Explorer (About This Site)
• Potentilla canadensis | Flora of North America (About This Site)
• Potentilla canadensis | Missouri Plants (About This Site)
• Dwarf Cinquefoil | Maryland Biodiversity Project (About This Site)
• Potentilla canadensis L. (Dwarf Cinquefoil, Canada Cinquefoil) | Digital Atlas of the Virginia Flora (About This Site)
↑Photo gallery
