Potentilla recta

High cinquefoil ( Potentilla recta )

The High cinquefoil ( Potentilla recta ), also called Upright cinquefoil is a Central European scattered occurring Rose family ( Rosaceae ). It blooms from May to September.

Appearance

The stems of this perennial plant is terminal, usually grows stiff upright, is 20 to 80 cm high, leafy and branched at the top of the panicle, rich and lockerblütigen inflorescence. He is loose to dense projecting long -haired, between glandular hairy with very short bristles, as well as in the upper part. The leaves are fingered and have 5-7 upside - lanceolate to ovate, sharply serrated to almost fiederspaltige, 3-8 cm long leaflets. These are more or less densely hairy and long, but never tomentose. The flowers are 20 to 25 mm wide and have heart-shaped, pale yellow to golden yellow petals. The outer sepals are lanceolate and 7-8 mm long; they increase in size later on 10 to 12 mm and are slightly longer than the triangular- ovate, pointed sepals. Most more than 100 wrinkled fruits are formed.

Variability of the species

The species is rich in form with respect to the perforation of the leaflets, the density of hairs and flower color. Overall, the subdivision of the species is not yet processed satisfactorily. Usually the High cinquefoil ( Potentilla recta ) is divided into 4 sub-species, of which P. recta subsp. recta and P. recta subsp. obscura should be mentioned. These differ from one another by the flower color (pale yellow in P. recta ssp. Recta, intense yellow in P. recta ssp. Obscura ), and by the shape of the leaflets (in the middle widest at the P. recta ssp. recta in the front third widest at the P. recta ssp. obscura ).

Distribution and habitat requirements

Potentilla recta grows on dry, base-rich sites, such as in ruderal grasslands, pioneer in hallways to flood and railway embankments, banks and roadsides, in parks, gravel pits, etc.

The species is probably originally a South-East European, south-west to Central Asian Art Today it ranges in Europe west to Spain, north to southern Scandinavia, in the south throughout the Mediterranean region, including northwest Africa, Anatolia, and Iran. The type is a ostmediterran - continental Florenelement and is apparently still in further spread in Western, Central and Northern Europe.

The High cinquefoil occurs in completely Germany still very scattered. In many cases, it is a fairly rare Adventivpflanze.

The way spreads apparently still further out, where the spread of fruits with seeds and forestry and ornamental plants, as well as the savagery of gardens play a role. The fruits are either dispersed by the wind or by animals.