Rosaceae. Part 3

Description

This section is from the book "Sub-Alpine Plants Or Flowers Of The Swiss Woods And Meadows", by H. Stuart Thompson. Also available from Amazon: Sub-Alpine Plants: Or, Flowers of the Swiss Woods and Meadows.

Rosaceae. Part 3

Potentilla Fruticosa L

This handsome shrub, with silky, sub-digitately pinnate leaves and bright yellow flowers, grows in the Pyrenees and many districts in N. and mid-Europe, but not in Switzerland. This is strange, for it is widely spread elsewhere, and appears in N. and W. Asia, Himalaya, N. America, and in N. England and Ireland.

Potentilla Valderia L

Densely tomentose. Crown of root covered with silky hairs. Leaflets 5-7, obovate, wedge-shaped, serrated, velvety on both sides. Corymb compact. Petals obcordate, white, shorter than calyx. Filaments hairy. Calyx-teeth lanceolate, acute.

Rocky places and pastures in the Maritime Alps and Balkan provinces; rare. July, August.

Potentilla Clusiana Jacq

Rootstock woody, with thick fibres, many-headed. Stem filiform, ascending, 1-3 leaved, 1-5 flowered, covered with patent hairs. Root-leaves palmately 5-cleft, shortly stalked, shorter than stem; stem-leaves 3-5 cleft, smaller, segments lanceolate or wedge-shaped, entire or with 3-5 teeth near the apex, nearly glabrous on both sides or silky on lower side and margin. Flowers handsome, milk-white. Petals obovate, longer than calyx-teeth. Filaments glabrous. Capsule villous. Stem and calyx usually tinged with purple.

Clefts of rock and debris in the Eastern Alps. Generally on limestone and rather rare; 5200-6500 feet. July, August.

Potentilla Tormentilla Scop. Common Tormentil

Rootstock stout, almost woody. Stems and leaves more or less silky. Lower leaves shortly stalked, upper ones sessile, consisting of 3 or 5 deeply toothed leaflets. Flowers small, yellow, on long, slender peduncles, springing from the forks of the stem on the axils of the upper leaves. A variable plant.

Heaths, moors, and pastures, and open woods in the plains and Alps.

Distribution

Europe, Arctic Asia, Azores.

Potentitla Argentea L. Hoary Cinquefoil. (Plate XI)

Stem ascending, branched above, covered with white silky hairs. Leaflets usually 5, incised, very white beneath, oboval, wedge-shaped; lower leaves stalked; upper leaves nearly sessile. Flowers small, yellow, in a loose, leafy corymb or panicle.

Dry pastures and waste, gravelly places in the plains and lower mountains. May to July.

Distribution

Northern and Central Europe, including the British Isles. Rarely in the Mediterranean district; Western Asia, Himalaya, N. America.

Potentilla Multifida L

Stem ascending, 6-12 inches high, branched above. Leaves pinnate, covered on under side with silvery, silky hairs, pinnae few, deeply pinnatifid, lobes linear. Flowers rather small, yellow, 2-7 in a terminal cyme. Petals obovate, wedge-shaped, emarginate.

Stony places on the Alps and lower Alps on primary rocks. June to August.

Distribution

Western Alps; rare in Switzerland, Caucasus, Russia, Siberia, Lapland, Thibet.

Potentilla Aurea L. (Plate XI)

Rootstock woody and tufted. Stem erect or ascending, covered with adpressed hairs like the whole plant, branched above, several-flowered. Leaves few, palmately 5-partite, or the upper one tripartite; segments obovate or wedge-shaped, deeply veined above, grass-green and shining, with pale, long silky hairs on the under side, and deeply serrated. Flowers large, bright yellow, with an orange streak at the base. Achenes glabrous.

Abundant in Alpine and sub-alpine pastures up to 9000 feet (Aig. du Goleon). June to September.