Branched Cinquefoil

Potentilla filicaulis (Nutt.) Rydb. Bull. Torrey
Club 24: 2. 1897.
Pote?itilla effusa filicaulis Nutt.; T. & G. Fl. N. Am. 1 : 437. 1840.
Cespitose perennial ; stems several from the caudex, erect or ascending, 1 dm. high or les.s.-.silky-strigose, few-leaved; stipules ovate-lanceolate, acute, 5-10 mm. long; basal leaves many, pinnate with 2 or 3 pairs of approximate leaflets, or subdigitately5-7-foliolate,. densely silky on both sides and slightly tomentose beneath ; leaflets cuneate, 1-2 cm. long, coarsely serrate with ovate teeth ; stem -leaves small ; cyme few-flowered ; hypanthium. white-silky, in fruit 4-5 mm. in diameter ; bractlets oblong, much shorter than the ovate or ovate-lanceolate acute sepals, which are 4-5 mm. long ; petals obcordate, 5-6 mm. long ; stamens about 20 ; pistils many ; styles filiform.
Type locality : Rocky Mountains towards the sources of the Platte. [Probably Wyoming.]! Distribution : Rocky Mountains from Colorado to Idaho.

Potentilla effusa DougL; Lehm. Stirp. Pug. 2 : 8. 1830
Perennial, with a tap-root and short caudex ; stems many, 2-4 dm, high, slightly silky, ascending or diffuse, dichotomously paniculately branched with spreading-ascending branches ; stipules lanceolate, subentire ; basal leaves many, with slender petioles 2-5 cm. long, usually interruptedly pinnate with 5-11 leaflets ; stem-leaves often 1-3-foliolate, grayish-tomentose on both sides ; leaflets cuneate-oblong or oblanceolate, the upper often confluent, crenate with broad usually ovate teeth; flowers paniculate-cymose ; bractlets linear or lin ear-lanceolate, usually much shorter than the lanceolate-acuminate sepals, which are 4-5 mm. long ; petals obovate, retuse, a little longer than the calyx.; stamens 20 ; pistils 20-40 ; styles filiform.
Type locality : [Not given in the original publication, but supplied in Hooker's Flora.] Elevated grounds of the Assiniboine.
Distribution : Plains and hills from Saskatchewan and Alberta to Nebraska and New Mexico.