BOTANICAL AND ECOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS
SPECIES: Potentilla hippiana | Horse Cinquefoil 



GENERAL BOTANICAL CHARACTERISTICS : 
Horse cinquefoil is a perennial herb with a heavy, branching crown.  It
grows from a stout, branched caudex [110,12,27].  The ascending or erect
stems reach from 0.4 to 1.6 ft (11-50 cm) in height [10,27].
Morphological characteristics such as plant height, flower size, the
amount of pubescence on leaf surfaces, and the shape and size of calyx
branches vary greatly within this species.

Numerous showy flowers are borne in terminal cymes from 1/4 to 1/2 in
(6-13 mm) across.  Inflorescences of horse cinquefoil are freely
branched [12].  The fruits are achenes, varying in number from several
to many [27].


RAUNKIAER LIFE FORM : 
   Chamaephyte
   Phanerophyte


REGENERATION PROCESSES : 
Little documentation exists on the reproductive strategies of horse
cinquefoil.  Most cinquefoils produce an abundance of small seeds with
good viability [25].  Many species also reproduce vegetatively through
rhizomes or adventitious rooting.  Horse cinquefoil may reproduce
vegetatively but this process has apparently not been documented in the
literature.


SITE CHARACTERISTICS : 
Horse cinquefoil occurs in a wide range of plant communities from
prairie and plains grasslands at lower elevations to spruce-fir and
alpine tundra in the Rocky Mountains [10,27].  It is also a constituent
of many sagebrush (Artemisia spp.), aspen (Populus tremuloides),
mountain meadow, and juniper scabland communities [12], and grows well
on open, often dry wooded slopes [10,12].  Horse cinquefoil commonly
occurs with needlegrasses (Stipa spp.) including needle-and-thread grass
(Stipa comata), and green needlegrass (Stipa viridula), fescues (Festuca
spp.), and blue grama (Bouteloua gracilis) in plains grasslands
[3,4,18].  Other plants commonly associated with horse cinquefoil
include shrubby cinquefoil (Potentilla fruticosa), ponderosa pine
(Pinus ponderosa), and aspen (Populus tremuloides).

Horse cinquefoil grows on a fairly wide range of soil composition and
texture.  On lower-elevation sites in sagebrush-grassland communities,
horse cinquefoil often grows well on saline soils [12].  Elevational
ranges are as follows [6]:

              from:  5,000 to 12,300 ft (1,525-3,752 m) in CO
                     5,200 to 8,800 ft (1,586-2,684 m) in MT
                     8,100 to 12,500 ft (2,471-3,818 m) in UT
                     6,000 to 11,000 ft (1,830-3,355 m) in WY
  


SUCCESSIONAL STATUS : 
Very little is known about the successional status of horse cinquefoil.
On some rather specific sites, a number of cinquefoils are described as
climax dominants [5,19], whereas on many other types of sites these
plants are more often thought of as early to mid-seral species [7,23].


SEASONAL DEVELOPMENT : 
Horse cinquefoil flowers from late June through August [12].

Related categories for Species: Potentilla hippiana | Horse Cinquefoil