Native. Annual or biennial.

Propagates by seeds. Time of bloom: June to

September. Seed-time: July to October. Range: Labrador to Alaska, southward to Georgia,

Texas, and Mexico. Habitat: Dry soil; fields, meadows, and waste places.

Stem one to three feet tall, stout, erect, rough-hairy, branching near the top, becoming tough and woody with age and changing from green to a dingy reddish purple. Leaves alternate, palmately trifoliate, the leaflets obovate, double-toothed, tapering to the base, hairy on both sides, the lower leaves petioled, the upper ones sessile or nearly so; stipules leaf-like, lance-shaped, toothed or entire. Flowers in terminal cymose clusters, rather small, the five rounded, pale yellow petals being less than half as long as the hairy, pointed, persistent calyx-lobes which are subtended by bracts still longer; stamens many. After the flower has been fertilized the long calyx-lobes close protectingly over the cone-like heads until the many small achenes have ripened and are ready to be scattered by the swaying of the tall weed in the wind. (Fig. 148.)

Fig. 147. Hardhack (Spircea to mentosa). x 1/6.

Fig. 147.-Hardhack (Spircea to-mentosa). x 1/6.

Fig. 148.   Rough Cinquefoil (Potentilla mon speliensis). X 1/3.

Fig. 148. - Rough Cinquefoil (Potentilla mon-speliensis). X 1/3.

Means Of Control

Close cutting while in first bloom; cultivation of the ground for one or two seasons.