Potentilla canadensis.Frank Bramley.New England Wild Flowerr Society.gobotany.newenglandwild.org (Accessed 4/2014)

Potentilla canadensis is a perennial herb, colonial ground cover, from a short, truncate root stock or rhizome to 2 x 0.8 cm; roots associated with vesicular-arbuscular endomycorrhizal fungi (Berliner and Torrey 1989); stems very slender (to 0.1 cm thick), silky-hairy, becoming prostrate, rooting at nodes, no tubers formed by rooting stem tips, stem leaves not fully expanded at flowering time. 

Leaves alternate, palmately compound, 5 leaflets, largest ones to 4 cm long, coarsely toothed above mid-blade, widest above middle, stipules of basal leaves with 2 narrow, flat lobes, stipules of larger stem leaves 3-parted, to 1 cm long. 

Flowers yellow, regular, to 1.5 cm wide, stalk thread-like to 9 cm long, March-June. 

Fruit dry head of achenes. Dispersal to and establishment in new sites in successional forest, contiguous to old regrowth stands has been calculated at a rate of 2.5 m/yr. (Matlack 1994). 

Wetland status: UPL. 

Frequency in NYC: Very infrequent. 

Origin: Native. 

Habitat: Dry soil in open habitats or woodland edges. 

Note: Very similar to P. simplex, but much less common. .