Hello to my UBC Botanical Garden friends. I thank you very much for all the help in identfying flowers in 2009. Now, for 2010, here is my first flower I need some help on. It was with some effort I identifed the attached flower as a Marsh Cinquefoil, Potentilla palustris, (Marsh Five-finger in one book). I felt very confident about this although the flower does not have any pedals. The plant and leaf structure meets the description in all my books. One person has disagreed with me on this identification. (She did not state what she thought it was.) Is this the Potentilla palustris that has gone into the seed pod stage? The flower was found on the Middle Fork of the Koyukuk River, (north of the Arctic Circle), in July. Thank you. Dickie Byrd
Hmmm. This site says that the top most leaflets are in 3's.( very clear pics if you scroll down) http://www.plant-identification.co.uk/skye/rosaceae/potentilla-palustris.htm
It's a species of Sanguisorba, probably Sanguisorba officinalis: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Sanguisorba_officinalis Marsh Cinquefoil (Comarum palustre, formerly Potentilla palustris) has individual large five-petalled flowers (as Silver surfer's link shows), not dense heads of small flowers like this. Edit: checked USDA profiles for Sanguisorba, and of the three species native in Alaska, only S. officinalis fits, so I'll call that a definite ident.
Darn it. Sanguisorba was my first idea, I just didn't have the courage to go with it. Thank you Michael!
Thank you Silver Surfer and Michael. I looked Sanguisorba officinalis up on Google Images and saw a whole lot of flowers looking just like mine. I then did a Google Web search and there were a number of sites with almost identical photos. A couple of them said it was Sanguisorba officinalis (Great Burnet). I really appreaciate you help on this one. Dickie Byrd
