A stout dark green nearly glabrous herb, with alternate pinnate large-stipuled leaves, the large red or purple flowers cymose or solitary, terminal or also axillary. Calyx deeply 5-lobed, 5-bracteolate, the bractlets narrow. Petals shorter than the calyx-lobes, acute, purple. Stamens numerous, inserted on the large pubescent disk. Pistils numerous, inserted on the somewhat enlarged, pubescent receptacle which becomes spongy in fruit. Style lateral. Achenes glabrous. Seed pendulous. [Greek name of the Arbutus, from the similar fruits.]

A monotypic genus of the north temperate zone.

1. Comarum Palústre L. Purple Or Marsh Cinquefoil. Purple Marshlocks. Cowberry. Purplewort

Fig. 2250

Comarum palustre L. Sp. Pl. 502. 1753.

Potentilla palustris Scop. Fl. Cam. Ed. 2, 1: 359. 1772.

Decumbent and somewhat woody at the base, the upper part of the stems pubescent. Leaves pinnate, the lower long-petioled, 5 - 7 - foliolate; leaflets oblong or oval, sharply or incisely serrate, obtuse or acutish at the apex, narrowed at the base, 1' - 3' long; stipules membranous, sometimes adnate to the petiole for half its length; upper leaves nearly sessile, 3 - 5 - foliolate; flowers showy, 9" - 15" broad; calyx-lobes red or purple within, ovate, acuminate, much exceeding the ovate-lanceolate petals; bractlets much shorter than the calyx-lobes; disk lobed.

In swamps and peat-bogs, Greenland and Labrador to New Jersey, Iowa, British Columbia, Wyoming, Alaska and California. Northern Europe and Asia. Marsh five-finger. Meadow-nuts. Bog-strawberry. June-Aug.