Potentilla canadensis (Dwarf Cinquefoil, Running Five-Fingers)

Description

Lowgrowing (up to 6″tall)  Native Groundcover is an essential for the pollinator garden. It is covered by yellow flowers in Spring and Summer. The flowers attract many types of small bees, skippers, butterflies and beneficial insects such as wasps and flies. . Two native bees specialize in pollinating Potentilla sps.:  Andrena (Derandrena) ziziaeformis, and Panurginus potentillae. They depend on this genus for survival. It is a larval host of the Grizzled Skipper.  Seeds are sometimes eaten by birds.

The leaves are reported to be edible for humans. Other Potentilla sps., have been used medicinally.

It is native to the following states and provinces: USA: AL, AR, CT, DC, DE, GA,  KY, MA, MD, Me , MO , MS, NC, NH, NJ, NY, OH, PA, RI, SC, TN, TX, VA, VT, WI, WV
Canada: NB, NS, ON, P , QC

We propagated our plants from native populations in the garden of my father Jerry Payne and stepmom Rose Payne in Bibb Co., GA. Plant in sun or part shade. There it is growing on red clay which is wet in winter and early spring and dry in the summer. It spreads the way Strawberries spread, by above-ground runners.

sold in 3.5″pots