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Tormentil

Tormentil

Potentilla erecta

Identify the Tormentil from a photo and log your finds with Florapass.

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How common: Very common

Tormentil is a small, long‑lived wildflower with bright yellow blooms. It sends up many fine, slightly rising stems from a thick underground base. You can spot it in open grassland, along paths and heaths, in light woods and at the edges of wet fens and bogs.

Did you know?

  • Its flowers usually have four petals, while most close relatives have five.
  • The thick underground base is often reddish inside.

About the species

Identification

Perennial 10–50 cm tall. Many slender, slightly hairy stems rise from a thick underground base. Leaves mostly split into three toothed leaflets; lower leaves have long stalks, upper leaves sit directly on the stem. Bright yellow flowers at the tips, small (about 0.5–1 cm across) with usually four rounded, slightly notched petals; a darker spot at each petal’s base. Later it carries a tight head of many small hard seeds. Many similar yellow relatives usually have five petals; Tormentil’s four petals and mostly three leaflets help you pick it out. Flowers in Finland from June to August.

Plant group

Herbaceous plants

Habitat

heath forest

Flowering

Jun–Aug

About the habitat

Grows in meadows, road verges, heaths, light and fresh woods, and on wet, nutrient‑rich fens and bog edges. Common across Finland, rarer along the Bothnian coast and in the Arm of Lapland.

Sources

Photo: Uoaei1, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Potentilla erecta Ötschergräben 01.JPG

Text: Pinkka: Verso- ja leviäintunnistus - Kaikki leviäimet, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.38863

Text: Pinkka: BIO-503 Suomen kasvisto ja kasvillisuus - Kulttuuriympäristöt: niityt, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.38863

Text: Wikipedia (Finnish), CC BY-SA 4.0 https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%A4tv%C3%A4n%C3%A4

See also