Potentilla chinensis Seeds | Chinese Cinquefoil
LATIN NAME: Potentilla chinensis
COMMON NAME: Chinese Cinquefoil
Plant Profile
Potentilla chinensis, commonly known as Chinese Cinquefoil, is a handsome, low, tufted, perennial in the rose family, native to dry, sunny places of the eastern Asia, while it grows in open, sunny places. Bees and other pollinators visit the flowers freely through the season. Each of these traits is modest on its own; together they make a garden-worthy plant.
Science & Biotechnology
Seed science, comparative botany and horticultural selection all touch on Potentilla chinensis, a representative of the rose family with clear practical value. The Chinese cinquefoil appears in traditional plant chemistry of the eastern Asia, where parts of plant have a long record of use, and constituents have been worked through by researchers across the world. The upshot for anyone sowing it is reassurance — cultivated stock of this plant has a long, well-documented track record.
Uses & Benefits
In the garden, Chinese Cinquefoil earns its place in borders, containers and mixed plantings, and it also rewards growers who raise plants for cutting, drying or kitchen use. In meadow garden, the Chinese cinquefoil is low, bright tuft of sunny border. Its small, bright-yellow flowers feed bees and insects, and low, tufted growth carpets sunny slope and rock garden with cheer. Traditional use of region keeps plant in old practice, and it grows well in dry, sunny, well-drained ground. Thereafter it wants only the ordinary attentions any garden plant receives.
Cinquefoils are astringent folk herbs of Europe for digestion and sore gums, and potentilla tormentil root remains official in European herbals; the garden types are tough, long-blooming perennials.
Growing from Seed
Sow fresh seed of Chinese Cinquefoil under ordinary good conditions. Scatter the seed evenly over a loose seed compost, cover to no more than its own depth, and keep the pot moist and bright. When the young plants are big enough to handle, space them into pots or a nursery row and let them size up before their final move.
Our Take
Once established, Chinese Cinquefoil largely looks after itself. Careful watering early on is rewarded by toughness at maturity.
Related Reading
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