Potentilla inclinataVill.

ashy cinquefoil

WFO wfo-0001016321 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 7 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 7 times, so some figures below are different views of the same plant, taken on the same day, rather than different individuals. They are usually different parts of it: the leaf, the flower, the bark.

Potentilla inclinata, photographed by Vladimír Fuka
fig. a Vladimír Fuka, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-05-31 / obs. 202519998
Potentilla inclinata, photographed by katunchik
fig. b katunchik, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 201858988
Potentilla inclinata, photographed by Reuven Martin
fig. c Reuven Martin, CC0 1.0 / obs. 50794987
Potentilla inclinata, photographed by aarongunnar
fig. d aarongunnar, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 20915306
Potentilla inclinata, photographed by Reuven Martin
fig. e Reuven Martin, CC0 1.0 / obs. 50795038
Potentilla inclinata, photographed by Dmitriy Bochkov
fig. f Dmitriy Bochkov, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 174247563
Potentilla inclinata, photographed by Carrie Seltzer
fig. g Carrie Seltzer, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 10639403
Potentilla inclinata, photographed by Ian Adams
fig. h Ian Adams, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 141268724

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 38 botanical countries

Regions where Potentilla inclinata is native: Altay, Buryatiya, Iran, Irkutsk, Kamchatka, Kazakhstan, Khabarovsk, Kirgizstan, Krasnoyarsk, North Caucasus, Primorye, Tadzhikistan, Transcaucasus, Türkiye, Uzbekistan, West Siberia, Xinjiang, Yakutiya, Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, Central European Russia, Czechia-Slovakia, East European Russia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Krym, Northwest European Russia, NW. Balkan Pen., Poland, Romania, South European Russia, Spain, Switzerland, Ukraine AltayBuryatiyaIranIrkutskKamchatkaKazakhstanKhabarovskKirgizstanKrasnoyarskNorth CaucasusPrimoryeTadzhikistanTranscaucasusTürkiyeUzbekistanWest SiberiaXinjiangYakutiyaAlbaniaAustriaBulgariaCentral European RussiaCzechia-SlovakiaEast European RussiaFranceGermanyGreeceHungaryItalyKrymNorthwest European RussiaNW. Balkan Pen.PolandRomaniaSouth European RussiaSpainSwitzerlandUkraine
Native distribution of Potentilla inclinata, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Albania ALB EUROPE
Austria AUT
Bulgaria BUL
Central European Russia RUC
Czechia-Slovakia CZE
East European Russia RUE
France FRA
Germany GER
Greece GRC
Hungary HUN
Italy ITA
Krym KRY
Northwest European Russia RUW
NW. Balkan Pen. YUG
Poland POL
Romania ROM
South European Russia RUS
Spain SPA
Switzerland SWI
Ukraine UKR
Altay ALT ASIA-TEMPERATE
Buryatiya BRY
Iran IRN
Irkutsk IRK
Kamchatka KAM
Kazakhstan KAZ
Khabarovsk KHA
Kirgizstan KGZ
Krasnoyarsk KRA
North Caucasus NCS
Primorye PRM
Tadzhikistan TZK
Transcaucasus TCS
Türkiye TUR
Uzbekistan UZB
West Siberia WSB
Xinjiang CHX
Yakutiya YAK

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Where it actually grows measured, from 142 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -17.4 °C -5.8 °C -1.2 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 21.4 °C 25.1 °C 27.7 °C
Annual rainfall 455 mm 708 mm 1,067 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 71 mm 123 mm 223 mm

It is found where winters are severely cold. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 142 research-grade observations of Potentilla inclinata that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.

Also published as 137 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Hypargyrium subrectum (Jord.) Fourr.
  • Potentilla adscendens Baumg.
  • Potentilla adscendens f. fallax (R.Uechtr.) Prodan
  • Potentilla adscendens f. minoriflora (Sabr.) Soó
  • Potentilla adscendens f. robusta Borhidi & Isépy
  • Potentilla adscendens subsp. fissidens (Borbás) Jáv.
  • Potentilla adscendens subsp. polyodonta (Borbás) Jáv.
  • Potentilla adscendens var. baumgarteniana (Schur) Soó
  • Potentilla adscendens var. laciniosa (Mert. & W.D.J.Koch) Soó
  • Potentilla adscendens var. polytricha (Borbás) Soó
  • Potentilla adscendens var. sadleri (Rchb.) Borbás
  • Potentilla adscendens var. subbiserrata Schur
  • Potentilla argentea subsp. impolita (Wahlenb.) Arcang.
  • Potentilla argentea subsp. inclinata (Vill.) Berher
  • Potentilla argentea var. canescens (Besser) Fiori
  • Potentilla argentea var. impolita (Wahlenb.) Nestl.
  • Potentilla argentea var. inclinata (Vill.) Döll
  • Potentilla arthuriana Her.Hofmann
  • Potentilla ascendens Waldst. & Kit. ex Willd.
  • Potentilla assurgens Vill.
  • Potentilla assurgens subsp. inclinata (Vill.) O.Schwarz
  • Potentilla baumgarteniana Schur
  • Potentilla bohemica Błocki ex Woł.
  • Potentilla bohemica Błocki ex Zimmeter

and 113 more.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.