Participant Info

Species

Potentilla rivalis [Potentilla leucocarpa] [Potentilla millegrana]

Family

Rosaceae

CommonName

brook cinquefoil, river cinquefoil

Presence

YES

Status

native

EarliestDate

1898

LatestDate

2022

Ecosystem

basin, foothill, montane

Geobotanical

UBasin, LBasin

Counties

Alamosa, Conejos, Costilla, Rio Grande

Passes

WildlifePreserves

Other Localities

PhotoRecords

YES Rich Haswell: Rio Grande Co, by pond of abandoned gravel pit NE of Del Norte 4 July 2022; edge of Beaver Creek Reservoir 12 Aug 2022

Comments

In the Watershed, Potentilla rivalis is generally found in the Basin—among greasewood (Ramaley, 1932) or on ditch embankments, pond and reservoir edges, and sloping river banks. But it does reach up into the montane (e.g., Beaver Creek Reservoir, elev 8,775'). All told, Watershed records are scarce. The 2022 photorecords from a gravel-pit pond near Del Norte and from the edge of Beaver Creek Reservoir would add Rio Grande Co to the counties indicated in Ackerfield (2022) and BONAP (2022). Potentilla rivalis has scattered locations in all states west of the Mississippi. This native species follows the Rio Grande drainage to the tip of west Texas. Note that differentiating P. nivalis from P. norvegica (with which, as FNA notes, P. nivalis is "often confused") requires close examination of seeds and stem hairs.

Annotation