Potentina fruticosa, L.

1. P. fruticosa L. , Sp. Pl. 495 (1753)

( Dasiphora fruticosa (L.) Rydb. ).

Much-branched, deciduous, more or less pubescent shrub up to 1 m. Leaves pinnate; leaflets (3-)5(-7), 10-25x2-7 mm, oblong-lanceolate or elliptical, entire. Flowers unisexual or hermaphrodite, solitary or few in terminal cymes. Sepals triangular-ovate; epicalyx-segments oblanceolate-linear, about as long as sepals. Petals 8-12 mm, yellow, longer than sepals. 2/2=14, 28. Britain and Ireland; Baltic region; Ural; Pyrenees; Maritime Alps; Rodopi; widely cultivatedfor ornament and locally naturalized, especially in Russia. Br Bu Ga Hb Hs It Rs (N, B, C) Su [No].

In N. Europe and Ural the plants are tetraploid with the flowers usually unisexual, although the sterile carpels in male flowers and the sterile stamens in female flowers are conspicuous. In the Pyrenees the plants are diploid with hermaphrodite flowers.

P. glabrata Willd. , Ges. Naturf. Freunde Berlin Mag. 7: 285 (1816) ( P. davurica Nestler ), from E. Asia, is cultivated for ornament in much of Europe, and is recorded as an escape from cultivation in France. It is very like 1 but has white petals.