{"id":2141,"date":"2016-10-04T15:16:55","date_gmt":"2016-10-04T22:16:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/realgardensgrownatives.com\/?p=2141"},"modified":"2020-04-25T09:49:47","modified_gmt":"2020-04-25T16:49:47","slug":"pnw-plant-of-the-week-graceful-cinquefoil-potentilla-gracilis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/realgardensgrownatives.com\/?p=2141","title":{"rendered":"Pacific Northwest Native Plant Profile: Graceful cinquefoil (Potentilla gracilis)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Potentilla
\nNicknamed slender cinquefoil or western cinquefoil<\/strong>, Potentilla gracilis<\/em> is a perennial herbaceous plant. It naturally occurs over much of western and northern North America at low to high elevations, mostly in moist to dry prairie and savanna ecosystems, but also in open forests, on rocky slopes and subalpine meadows. Growing from a woody crown, it has sharply divided, oval, deep green leaves with hairy, silver undersides and somewhat erect inflorescences with bright to pale yellow five-petaled flowers that bloom from early to late summer. In the Pacific Northwest, it naturally occurs in nearly every county<\/a> in Oregon and Washington, as well as parts<\/a> of southern British Columbia.<\/p>\n

Closely related species include Potentilla glandulosa<\/em> (sticky cinquefoil), with cream to pale yellow flowers, and Potentilla pulcherrima<\/em>, the latter of which grows in montane regions. P.<\/em> pulcherrima (<\/em>common name: beautiful cinquefoil) comes from the Latin pulcherrima<\/em>, which means “very beautiful” (aren’t they all?). Both occur mainly in the western U.S. and Canada. There are many other species of Potentilla, but P. gracilis<\/em> and P. glandulosa<\/em> are the most common west of the Cascades and are the most likely to be found for sale at nurseries.<\/p>\n

Wildlife value
\n<\/strong>Native bees<\/a>, butterflies<\/a>, syrphid flies,<\/a> and other beneficial insects are attracted to the flowers. Graceful cinquefoil is also a host plant for the caterpillars of butterflies such as the two-banded checkered skipper. It is not attractive to deer.<\/span><\/p>\n

Try it at home
\n<\/strong>Graceful cinquefoil does best in moist, well-drained soil that’s rich in organic matter, in full to part sun. Since it’s not a tall plant (usually no more than about two feet tall) and only grows to about two feet wide, site it where it won’t be heavily shaded by other plants. You can also grow native cinquefoil in a container<\/a>, but be sure it gets enough moisture. Associated species include Cascara<\/a> and Oregon ash trees, and perennials such as checker mallow, Oregon iris, native lupines, and other moisture loving plants. Summer water is essential until it’s established, but even afterwards it will do best with supplemental water during the hot, dry part of summer.<\/p>\n

\u00a9 2016 Eileen M. Stark<\/a><\/p>\n

To leave a comment, click on post’s title<\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nicknamed slender cinquefoil or western cinquefoil, Potentilla gracilis is a perennial herbaceous plant. It naturally occurs over much of western and northern North America at low to high elevations, mostly in moist to dry prairie and savanna ecosystems, but also in open forests, on rocky slopes and subalpine meadows. Growing from a woody crown, it has sharply […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[392],"tags":[260,334,136,219,186],"class_list":["post-2141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pacific-northwest-native-plant-profiles","tag-functional-gardening","tag-garry-oak-ecosystem","tag-northwest-native-plants","tag-pollinator-garden","tag-pollinator-plants"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p69uLV-yx","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/realgardensgrownatives.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/realgardensgrownatives.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/realgardensgrownatives.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realgardensgrownatives.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realgardensgrownatives.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2141"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/realgardensgrownatives.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2141\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4806,"href":"https:\/\/realgardensgrownatives.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2141\/revisions\/4806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/realgardensgrownatives.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realgardensgrownatives.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realgardensgrownatives.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}