Sulfer Cinquefoil, Potentilla recta

Cinquefoil is a European garden flower which became a favorite mojo in Southern tradition HooDoo. Also known as Five Finger Grass, Septafoil, and many other names. Like many other herbs with palmately compound leaves, Cinquefoil is seen as a helping hand to aid in getting us what we want, or a protective agent. It is also used to aid in courtroom proceedings and legal issues, to dream of a future lover, to gain favor in asking requests of employers and other authority figures, for purification, love, and of course, gambling. It is used in smoke blends as a visionary, psychic aid.

There are a number of species and garden varieties of Potentilla, P. reptans, P. tormentilla, among them. All are used in the same way. Mine is the Sulfur Cinquefoil, P. recta which seven leaflets than five, so it may have more powers than the reputed five of wisdom, love, money, health, and power.

Growing Cinquefoil in central Texas
This variety is super easy and fun to grow! It is a sun-loving garden flower. It is a short-lived perennial; mine mostly live 1-3 years, but they come up from seed very easily. They make a mound of the pretty serrated 7- leaflet leaves, eventually occupying a 1 1/2 foot diameter circle. Then it shoots up flowering stalks with pretty sprays of yellow flowers, usually in late spring-early summer. The inflorescences last weeks if
not over a month. After the flowering stalks are spent, I cut them back to look tidier, being sure to save some seeds for next year.