Potentilla neumanniana Spring Cinquefoil RR DD N
Re-directed to Potentilla tabernaemontani
A few of these Cinquefoils look quite similar but the beauty of this one is that it flowers first by a month or so. If you find one covered in flowers in early April or late March in a warm Spring, then it is unlikely to be P. reptans (Creeping Cinquefoil) or P. anglica (Trailing Tormentil) whose yellow flowers are quite similar.
This is also a species which has suffered from the dreaded Taxonomia confusa condition. It was called Potentilla tabernaemontani when I started botanising seriously in the 80s, then it was changed by the taxonomists to Potentilla neumanniana which was at least little less of a tongue twister.
Now it has re emerged as Potentilla tabernaemontani again in the BSBI, Kent lists and now in New Flora of the British Isles Edition 3 by Clive Stace.
It has an interesting distribution in that it does not mind northerly latitudes but is clustered wherever it is found - often on dry and rocky basic grassland. There are clusters of sites near to Edinburgh, North Wales, the white peak in Derbyshire, Inverness, East Anglia and in Somerset but it is not common and is classified as RR by Stace in Edition 3.
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| Potentilla neumanniana Spring Cinquefoil |
Great Orme, North Wales 16th April 2008
Added on 24th April 2005, updated 17th April 2008, updated and redirected 21st July 2011