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. 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.