Potentilla reptansL.

creeping cinquefoil

WFO wfo-0001011690 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Potentilla reptans, photographed by Daniel Cahen
fig. a Daniel Cahen, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-06-12 / obs. 205543607

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 67 botanical countries

Regions where Potentilla reptans is native: Algeria, Azores, Canary Is., Eritrea, Ethiopia, Libya, Madeira, Morocco, Tunisia, Afghanistan, China North-Central, China South-Central, China Southeast, Cyprus, Inner Mongolia, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kirgizstan, Lebanon-Syria, North Caucasus, Palestine, Tadzhikistan, Transcaucasus, Türkiye, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Xinjiang, Yemen, Pakistan, West Himalaya, Albania, Austria, Baleares, Baltic States, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Central European Russia, Corse, Czechia-Slovakia, Denmark, East European Russia, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Kriti, Krym, Netherlands, Northwest European Russia, NW. Balkan Pen., Poland, Portugal, Romania, Sardegna, Sicilia, South European Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye-in-Europe, Ukraine AlgeriaEritreaEthiopiaLibyaMoroccoTunisiaAfghanistanChina North-CentralChina South-CentralChina SoutheastCyprusInner MongoliaIranIraqKazakhstanKirgizstanLebanon-SyriaNorth CaucasusPalestineTadzhikistanTranscaucasusTürkiyeTurkmenistanUzbekistanXinjiangYemenPakistanWest HimalayaAlbaniaAustriaBaltic StatesBelarusBelgiumBulgariaCentral European RussiaCorseCzechia-SlovakiaDenmarkEast European RussiaFinlandFranceGermanyGreeceHungaryIrelandItalyKritiKrymNetherlandsNorthwest European RussiaNW. Balkan Pen.PolandPortugalRomaniaSiciliaSouth European RussiaSpainSwedenSwitzerlandTürkiye-in-EuropeUkraine AzoresCanary Is.MadeiraBalearesSardegna
Native distribution of Potentilla reptans, 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. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Albania ALB EUROPE
Austria AUT
Baleares BAL
Baltic States BLT
Belarus BLR
Belgium BGM
Bulgaria BUL
Central European Russia RUC
Corse COR
Czechia-Slovakia CZE
Denmark DEN
East European Russia RUE
Finland FIN
France FRA
Germany GER
Great Britain GRB
Greece GRC
Hungary HUN
Ireland IRE
Italy ITA
Kriti KRI
Krym KRY
Netherlands NET
Northwest European Russia RUW
NW. Balkan Pen. YUG
Poland POL
Portugal POR
Romania ROM
Sardegna SAR
Sicilia SIC
South European Russia RUS
Spain SPA
Sweden SWE
Switzerland SWI
Türkiye-in-Europe TUE
Ukraine UKR
Afghanistan AFG ASIA-TEMPERATE
China North-Central CHN
China South-Central CHC
China Southeast CHS
Cyprus CYP
Inner Mongolia CHI
Iran IRN
Iraq IRQ
Kazakhstan KAZ
Kirgizstan KGZ
Lebanon-Syria LBS
North Caucasus NCS
Palestine PAL
Tadzhikistan TZK
Transcaucasus TCS
Türkiye TUR
Turkmenistan TKM
Uzbekistan UZB
Xinjiang CHX
Yemen YEM
Algeria ALG AFRICA
Azores AZO
Canary Is. CNY
Eritrea ERI
Ethiopia ETH
Libya LBY
Madeira MDR
Morocco MOR
Tunisia TUN
Pakistan PAK ASIA-TROPICAL
West Himalaya WHM

Not drawn on the map: Great Britain. We hold no public-domain boundary for this region, so it is listed rather than guessed at.

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.

Flowering 1,001 in flower of 1,435 examined

Proportion of examined Potentilla reptans in flower, by month
Month In flower Examined Share 95% interval
Jan 4 24 17% 7% to 36%
Feb 1 16 6% 1% to 28%
Mar 9 59 15% 8% to 27%
Apr 35 126 28% 21% to 36%
May 237 299 79% 74% to 83%
Jun 368 388 95% 92% to 97%
Jul 166 195 85% 79% to 89%
Aug 83 124 67% 58% to 75%
Sep 40 69 58% 46% to 69%
Oct 34 57 60% 47% to 71%
Nov 15 45 33% 21% to 48%
Dec 9 33 27% 15% to 44%

Peak flowering in Jun. Each bar is the share of Potentilla reptans observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 1,001 of 1,435 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Where it actually grows measured, from 1,957 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -10.4 °C -1.2 °C 3.9 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 18.7 °C 23.1 °C 29.1 °C
Annual rainfall 539 mm 742 mm 1,354 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 82 mm 141 mm 246 mm

It is found where winters bring hard frost. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 1,957 research-grade observations of Potentilla reptans 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. Climate from CHELSA V2.1 (Karger et al. 2017); occurrences from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Also published as 89 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.

  • Dasiphora reptans (L.) Raf.
  • Duchesnea filipendula (Hemsl.) Focke
  • Dynamidium reptans (L.) Fourr.
  • Fragaria filipendula Hemsl.
  • Fragaria pentaphyllum Crantz
  • Fragaria reptans (L.) Crantz
  • Potentilla abyssinica A.Rich.
  • Potentilla anomala Ledeb.
  • Potentilla cacerensis Riv.Mateos
  • Potentilla hemsleyana Th.Wolf
  • Potentilla lanata (Lange) Zimmeter
  • Potentilla mandonii Foucaud
  • Potentilla microphylla (Tratt.) Zimmeter
  • Potentilla mixta Nolte ex W.D.J.Koch
  • Potentilla pinnatifida J.Presl & C.Presl
  • Potentilla procumbens Sibth.
  • Potentilla procumbens f. incisoserrata Abrom.
  • Potentilla procumbens f. parviflora Domin
  • Potentilla procumbens f. pectinata Th.Wolf
  • Potentilla procumbens f. pentamera Th.Wolf
  • Potentilla procumbens f. subsericea Th.Wolf
  • Potentilla procumbens subsp. euprocumbens Briq.
  • Potentilla procumbens subvar. parviflora (Domin) Th.Wolf
  • Potentilla procumbens subvar. parvifolia Th.Wolf

and 65 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.