Scarlet Cinquefoil

Potentilla thurberi A. Gray, Mem. Am. Acad
II. 5 : 318. 1854.
Perennial, with a woody tap-root and short caudex; stem ascending, 3-7 dm. high, finely pubescent and sparingly villous ; stipules large, 1-2 cm. long, broadly ovate, coarsely toothed ; basal leaves and lower stem-leaves long-petioled, digitately 5-7-foliolate, glabrate or slightly silky, sometimes glandular-puberulent, thin, sometimes slightly paler beneath but not tomentose; leaflets obovate, 3-5-cm. long, coarsely toothed with broad teeth , almost crenate ; upper stem-leaves sessile, 3-5-foliolate with oblong leaflets ; cyme open and branched ; flowers about 15 mm. in diameter ; hypanthium puberulent, in fruit about 1 cm. in diameter ; bractlets 5-6 mm. long, lanceolate, about equaling the triangular acute sepals ; petals nearly orbicular, emarginate, exceeding the sepals, dark reddish -purple, 7-10 mm. long ; stamens 20-30, the inner 5 with thicker filaments, borne on a ring-like thickening of the disk ; pistils numerous.
Type locality : Near Santa Rita del Cobre, [New Mexico] .
Distribution : Mountains of New Mexico, Arizona, southern California, and northern Mexico.

Potentilla thurberi, the scarlet cinquefoil, is a species of Potentilla Found in North America (Arizona, New Mexico) in moist soils along streams or in damp meadows from 5,000-9,000 ft (1524-2743 m); flowers July-September.