Golden Cinquefoil

Potentilla aurea

Also known as Alpine Cinquefoil, Golden Potentilla, Mountain Cinquefoil

At a glance

Family

Rosaceae (rose family)

Type

Low, mat-forming perennial alpine herb

Parts used

Leaves and flowering tops (occasionally the root)

Size

2 to 6 inches tall, spreading into cushions 8 to 12 inches wide

Bloom

Early to mid-summer, roughly June through August

Habitat

High mountain meadows, rocky slopes, and grassy alpine pastures of the Alps, Pyrenees, Carpathians, and Balkans

Acquisition

Grow or buy

This plant in HerbSense

Key benefits

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Traditional mild astringent

Old alpine herder's tea

Soothing for minor skin

Beloved pollinator plant

Traditional uses

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In the high pastures of the Alps and Carpathians, golden cinquefoil carpeted the same slopes where shepherds grazed their flocks each summer, and its bright five-petaled blooms became a familiar, almost cheerful landmark of the growing season. Like its better-known cousin tormentil, it belongs to a genus long valued in European folk herbalism for a gentle, tannin-rich astringency, and mountain households sometimes steeped the leaves into a simple tea to settle the stomach or ease a scratchy throat after a long day outdoors. It was never as central to the herbal medicine chest as tormentil, but it traveled in the same tradition, gathered more casually and used more sparingly. Today it is treasured at least as much for its beauty in rock gardens as for any remedy tucked into its leaves.

How to grow & use it

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Pairs well with

✦Yarrow
✦Lady's Mantle
✦Wild Thyme

Substitutes

✦Tormentil (Potentilla erecta)
✦Lady's Mantle

Choose it when

“For a touch of alpine gold in the rock garden, and a quiet old-world tea passed down from mountain kitchens.”

Did you know?

The genus name Potentilla comes from the Latin potens, meaning powerful, a nod to the strong astringent reputation long attached to cinquefoil roots in old herbals, even though golden cinquefoil itself is prized today more for lighting up alpine meadows than for filling the medicine chest.

Safety

Not known to be toxic; like other tannin-rich plants, excessive or long-term tea drinking can irritate the stomach and reduce iron absorption.