Creeping Cinquefoil

(Potentillareptans L., Rosaceae)

Also Called: Five-leaf Grass, Five Fingers.

Description: Perennial creeping plant with woody rhizome, spreading widely by means of creeping stems up to 1 m (3ft) long, thin, hairy, often reddish in colour, rooting at the nodes.
Leaves with long petioles, digitate with 5 or, more rarely, 7 segments.
Each leaflet oval or lanceolate, hairy on both surfaces, margin dentate.
Flowers light yellow, usually single, borne on long peduncles opposite to the leaves, 5 petals.
Flowering: May-September.

Part Used: Dried flowering plant.

Habitat and Collection: On walls, in pastures, waste places. roadsides throughout Europe; widespread in England mainly on basic and neutral soils.
Collected when in flower, preferably before August and dried either in the shade or in sunlight.

Constituents and Action: The only known active constituent is tannin.
It is used as an astringent antidiarroeal and as anti -inflammatory.

Usage: Internally rarely as a tisane (1 litre (1 75pt) of cold water 2 handfuls of drug, boil for 5 minutes) for diarrhoea (tormentilla is much more effective).
Externally the decoction is used to bathe wounds and as a mouthwash for irritations of the throat and gums.