Photo: Gilles Ayotte, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped · Wikimedia Commons

Three-toothed Cinquefoil

Scientific name: Sibbaldia tridentata · Family: Rosaceae (rose family)

Also called shrubby fivefingers, wineleaf potentilla, Sibbaldiopsis tridentata, Potentilla tridentata.

A low evergreen mat of mountaintops and rocky shores, with glossy three-part leaves that turn wine-red in fall and white flowers in summer.

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EvergreenShowy flowersFall colorDrought tolerantRare

Type: Shrub
Mature height: 1 ft
USDA zones: 3–9
Growth rate: Medium
Flowers: June to August
Fruit: Seeds, July to September
First crop: 2 years (first flowers)
Mature spread: 2 ft
Sun: Full
Soil moisture: Dry, Average
Grows wild in: Rocky ground, the Appalachians, the coast and sandy barrens
Native range: 21 states, north and west to North Dakota and south to Georgia
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Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia and Wisconsin
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Three-toothed cinquefoil is a low evergreen of rocky summits, ledges and shores, a mat of glossy leaves on woody lower stems. Each leaf has three leaflets, each notched into three teeth at the tip. It is a plant of the far North that follows the high mountains south, and in a garden it wants the same thin, open ground. Iowa and New Jersey list it as endangered, and Connecticut and Tennessee list it as threatened. Grow it as a groundcover in a sunny rock garden or between the stones of a walk.

Size, growth and what to expect

Three-toothed cinquefoil grows at a medium pace for its size, a few inches a year in our growth estimator. It makes a mat 2 to 12 inches high and 1 to 2 feet wide, and its lower stems are woody, with shredding gray-brown bark. The glossy, dark green leaves last through winter, and in sun they turn deep red to burgundy in fall.

Clusters of up to 25 small white flowers open from June to August, the first at the tip of each stem. The seed heads turn from green to grayish brown three to four weeks after the flowers. Butterflies visit the flowers.

It grows wild from Greenland and Labrador west to the Northwest Territories, and south to Connecticut, the Great Lakes and northeastern Iowa. Farther south it follows exposed mountaintops to Georgia. Its home is rocky and gravelly shores, ledges, mountain balds and alpine tundra, often on acid soil.

How to grow Three-toothed Cinquefoil

Three-toothed cinquefoil wants full sun and a lean, acid soil of sand, gravel or rock, and good drainage is essential. It takes an average garden soil that drains well, and it stands drought once established. It will not hold its own against taller plants in rich soil, so give it open ground. Set plants 2 feet apart and keep them 2 feet from a wall. At its size it can go within 15 feet of overhead wires.

Saplings ship bare-root or potted. Plant them in a hole wider than the roots and no deeper. Set the crown at the soil line, put the native soil back in, and keep the mulch clear of the stems. Collect the seed heads as they turn grayish brown, three to four weeks after the flowers. Sow fresh seed outdoors at once, and it comes up the next spring. For a spring sowing, hold stored seed damp in the refrigerator for 6 weeks first.

Water it every day for the first two weeks after planting, then every two to three days until week 12. After that, water weekly through the first two summers. Before each watering, push a finger a few inches into the soil, and wait if it is still wet. Divide the mat every three or four years, or sooner if it looks crowded, best in fall.

Each flower carries both male and female parts, so there are no male and female plants to pair. It has no serious pests or diseases, and it resists verticillium wilt. Seedlings take two years to flower.

Heights and zones are typical ranges for the species in cultivation; local conditions and seed source shift them.

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