Bush Cinquefoil                po-ten-TIL-a fru-ti-KO-sa

• Broadleaf deciduous shrub, 2-4 ft (0.9-1.2 m) tall, similar width, low rounded, bushy.  Leaves alternate, compound pinnate, 3-7 leaflets (often 5, hence Cinquefoil, from quinque (L), five, and folium (L), leaf), each leaflet 13-20 mm x 6-12 mm, oblong-lanceolate.  Flowers usually bright yellow (but white, pink, and red cultivars available), each 2.5-5 cm wide, single, 5-petaled (some cultivars double), solitary or in small groups.  Blooms for an long period, not overwhelming.  Fruit a small brown achene, not ornamental.
• Sun or light shade, tolerant of most well-drained soils, tough plant. Often left unpruned.  Phillips and Barber (1981) state that potentilla "ignore conventional pruning" and the only way to rejuvenate them is to "amputate old stems to the ground".
• Hardy to USDA Zone 2      Native to the Northern Hemisphere.  There are many (too many?) cultivars, see Dirr (Manual of Woody Landscape Plants,1998, p. 768) for a brief description of 81 cultivars.
• fruticosa: shrubby
• Oregon State Univ. campus: east and south Ocean Admin. Building.