Hoary Cinquefoil - Potentilla argentea

Short to medium downy plant with spreading or ascending stems. Leaves with five narrow, toothed or lobed leaflets, silvery white felted below. The edges are revolute, showing a narrow green border underneath. Flowers yellow, 4-5mm in terminal racemes, petals more or less same length as sepals, dense woolly hairs on upper parts of stem.

Potentilla inclinata is a non-native species that has not been recorded in VC55, but is similar, with larger petals and greyish-felted undersides to leaves, which are not revolute; see Stace (4th edition) for other differences

White-felted leaves underneath; petals 4-5mm and about as long as sepals

Photographs of leaf undersides, showing white-felted with revolute edges. (RPR)

Rocky, stony or sandy habitats and waste ground

June to September.

Perennial.

Widespread but local in England and southern Scotland, scarce in south western England and in Wales.

Scarce but increasing in Leicestershire and Rutland.

In the Flora of Leicestershire (Primavesi and Evans 1988) it was found in 3 of the 617 tetrads, and in the Flora of Rutland (Messenger 1971) in  1 tetrad.

It is listed on the current VC55 Rare Plant Register (Hall and Woodward 2022) as Locally Scarce (i.e. present in 4-10 sites)