Example ⟳ +
An example collection, so you can see what this page does. Nothing added here is kept: leaving deletes it.
Potentilla drummondii; photograph (c) James H. Thomas, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) James H. Thomas, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-06-22

Potentilla drummondii Lehm.

Drummond's cinquefoil

Rosaceae · Alaska, Alberta +4

Add one to my plants
Sow seed
Potentilla drummondii, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedPotentilla drummondii, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedPotentilla drummondii, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedPotentilla drummondii, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedPotentilla drummondii, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedPotentilla drummondii, photograph author not stated, no rights reserved 111 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Coldest month, mean nightly low
-9.7°C
Dec at the habitat, not a floor; extremes not used (the weather cell's ground is too far off) CHELSA
Warmest month, mean daily high
21°C
Jul and Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,472mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
8–47DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet winters: the rain comes October to March, with nights below freezing; no growing season read. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Potentilla drummondii is a species of flowering plant, known by the common name Drummond's cinquefoil, in the family Rosaceae. It is native to North America from Alaska to California, where it grows in many types of moist habitat. It is perhaps better described as a species complex containing many intergrading subspecies that readily hybridize with other Potentilla species. The plant is variable, growing decumbent or erect, small and tufted or up to 60 centimeters tall, hairless to woolly. More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Potentilla drummondii", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Potentilla

Potentilla is a genus containing over 500 species of annual, biennial and perennial herbaceous flowering plants in the rose family, Rosaceae.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Potentilla", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a rainy season and no growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,071 mm of 1,471 mm) falls in October to March, the cooler part of the year, but the mean nightly low is below freezing in February, March, April, November, December and January, so the rule reads no growing season from it. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: April to September.

Rain

1,471 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,071 mm of it October to March. Wettest month January at 229 mm, driest month July at 36 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 777 mm to 2,648 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,472 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,471 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 8 to 47 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 4, the highest 90th-percentile month 54).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low -9.7 °C in December (across the grid cells of the range -17.3 °C to -4.2 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 20.5 °C in July and August (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: none read. The nearest figure is -9.7 °C, the coldest month's mean nightly low, December, in the median year (CHELSA); a month's mean of its nightly lows is warmer than the nights a floor is read from. The daily extremes were read at a weather cell whose ground is too far above or below the typical spot to correct for, and are not used.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 51 to 63% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. No cold floor is read without a daily extremes series; the coldest month's mean nightly low named in its sentence is not one. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Potentilla drummondii through the yearWarmest months July and August, mean daily high 21 °C; coldest month December, mean nightly low -9.7 °C; 1,471 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.-20°-10°0°10°20°30°frost°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 8–47RH 51–63%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 206 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C-2 / -10–4-1 / -7–52 / -4–85 / 0–1111 / 5–1516 / 11–2121 / 15–2621 / 15–2516 / 10–229 / 2–151 / -6–7-3 / -10–3
Night °C-10 / -17–-4-9 / -16–-4-6 / -13–-3-4 / -9–-1-1 / -5–34 / 1–77 / 4–107 / 4–104 / -1–7-1 / -7–3-7 / -14–-1-10 / -17–-4
Rain mm229 / 49–386185 / 43–298163 / 47–26995 / 48–18288 / 47–14582 / 27–15536 / 11–11337 / 14–11462 / 26–117102 / 50–234176 / 61–408216 / 49–419
DLI9 / 6–1916 / 12–2625 / 20–3634 / 30–4641 / 36–5143 / 39–5447 / 39–5341 / 33–4831 / 24–4019 / 14–3010 / 7–218 / 4–17
RH %62 / 50–6861 / 53–6560 / 53–6558 / 53–6457 / 50–6356 / 46–6252 / 42–6051 / 43–5953 / 45–5958 / 47–6363 / 49–6962 / 50–68

The daily extremes were not used: the correction for elevation, +1657 m, is beyond the 1,000 m either way that a lapse rate is applied over, so the weather cell's ground is other terrain than the typical spot's. So no cold floor is read for this species, and the coldest month's mean nightly low is not taken as one. What that cell gave, so corrected, over 44 years: absolute minimum -33.9 °C, 1st-percentile night -21.7 °C.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 206 grid cells holding the 254 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 892:1166 (45.375, -121.675). Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 206 distinct grid cells holding 254 of the 254 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 892:1166 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 45.50_-121.875, lapse-corrected +1657 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 2269 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeAlaska, Alberta, Montana, Oregon, Washington, California · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker37.967, -119.321 · in the densest population, 420 records (78% of those in range)
Kew's description“perennial” · “temperate” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 537 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 254 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 357 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 46 km away. 105 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 283 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 537 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Potentilla drummondii, photograph 1did not loadPotentilla drummondii, photograph 2did not loadPotentilla drummondii, photograph 3did not loadPotentilla drummondii, photograph 4did not loadPotentilla drummondii, photograph 5did not loadPotentilla drummondii, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0 (6).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Eriogonum pyrolifolium Eriogonum pyrolifolium Polygonaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedPedicularis racemosa Pedicularis racemosa Leafy lousewort Photo: CC BY, Kalvin ChanCaltha leptosepala Caltha leptosepala Slender-sepal marsh marigold Photo: CC BY, Alan CovingtonPotentilla flabellifolia Potentilla flabellifolia Fan-leaved cinquefoil Photo: CC0, author not statedValeriana sitchensis Valeriana sitchensis Pacific valerian Photo: CC0, author not statedGentiana calycosa Gentiana calycosa Mountain bog gentian Photo: CC0, author not stated

Other Potentilla 106 in the reference

Potentilla acaulis Potentilla acaulis Stemless cinquefoil Photo: CC0, author not statedPotentilla alba Potentilla alba White cinquefoil Photo: CC BY, Мирослав СоболевPotentilla alchimilloides Potentilla alchimilloides Rosaceae Photo: CC BY, frangpPotentilla anglica Potentilla anglica Trailing tormentil Photo: CC0, author not statedPotentilla apennina Potentilla apennina Rosaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Emanuele SantarelliPotentilla argentea Potentilla argentea Hoary cinquefoil Photo: CC0, author not statedPotentilla argyrophylla Potentilla argyrophylla Rosaceae Photo: CC BY, Siddarth Machado Potentilla articulata Rosaceae Potentilla astracanica Potentilla astracanica Rosaceae Photo: CC BY, Dmitriy BochkovPotentilla atrosanguinea Potentilla atrosanguinea Rosaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, VinayarajPotentilla aurea Potentilla aurea Dwarf yellow cinquefoil Photo: CC0, author not statedPotentilla bipinnatifida Potentilla bipinnatifida Bipinnate cinquefoil Photo: CC0, author not stated all 107 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Potentilla anomalifolia; Potentilla anomalofolia; Potentilla cascadensis; Potentilla dissecta var. drummondii; Potentilla drummondii subsp. drummondii and 4 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Rosaceae
Described by
Lehm.
Native to
Alaska, Alberta, Montana +3
Wild records
537 in range · 357 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 45.50_-121.875, lapse-corrected +1657 m at 6.5 °C/km; read, and set aside: the correction for elevation, +1657 m, is beyond the 1,000 m either way that a lapse rate is applied over, so the weather cell's ground is other terrain than the typical spot's, so no cold floor is shown
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22none of the photographs on this page is credited to GBIF: those shown are other sources', and GBIF's were the same photographs or were set aside by the photograph rules
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 50 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…