Cinquefoil
Potentilla simplex

Other Names:  Five Fingers, Five-Finger Blossom, Five-finger grass, Sunkfield, Synkefoyle, Common Cinquefoil, Creeping Cinquefoil, Oldfield Cinquefoil

Habitat 
Perennial herb native to Eastern and Central N. America from Nova Scotia to North Carolina, Alabama, Minnesota and Missouri. Found growing in dry open woods, prairie hillsides, roadsides, old fields and waste places. Cultivation: Cinquefoil is easily grown, prefers full sun but tolerating shade, in any moderately good well-drained soil. Sow seed early spring or autumn. The roots are long, slender rhizomes branched at the top from several crowns, from which arise the long-stalked leaves and solitary, yellow flowers that close up at night, and threadlike, creeping stems. The stem-runners root at intervals and often attain a length of 5 feet or more, spreading over a wide area. The name Five-leaf or Five Fingers refers to the leaves being divided into five leaflets. Each of these is about 1 1/2 inch long, with scattered hairs on the veins and margin. The margins of the leaflets serrated. In rich soils the leaflets are often six or seven. Flowers bloom in late May thru August. Harvest edible young shoots and leaves before flowers bloom. Gather entire plant, in bloom, dry for later herb use.

Photo (Above) by Karen Bergeron
Copyright 2000

Folklore
 It was an ingredient in many spells in the Middle Ages, and was particularly used as a magic herb in love potions. In an old recipe called 'Witches' Ointment' the juice of Five-leaf Grass, smallage and wolfsbane is mixed with the fat of children dug up from their graves and added to fine wheat flour.

Recipes
A medicinal infusion of 1 oz. of the herb to a pint of boiling water. Take 1 cup a day.

Decoction, 1 1/2 oz. of the root, boiled in a quart of water down to a pint. 
Article by Deb Jackson & Karen Bergeron     

Next > Cleavers