#potentilla

Five-finger Grass/Cinquefoil (potentilla)

Famous for the Five Finger Blessings, "where each leaflet represents an area of life you wish to "grasp" or influence”:

Love

Money

Health

Power

Wisdom

Cinquefoil is a significant plant in European folklore and magic, primarily revered for protection, love, and luck. Often hung over doors or used in charms, it was believed to ward off evil spirits, witchcraft, and bring success, particularly in love and fishing. It also symbolized mastery of the five senses.

In Czech folk magic and traditional herbalism (lidové léčitelství), the cinquefoil variation—known as Mochna husí (Potentilla anserina)—is celebrated as a "powerful" herb (from the Latin potentia) with a primary focus on protection and relief from physical and spiritual "cramps".

The "Seven-Finger" Charm

In folk magic, a sprig with seven leaflets (you’ll note that in some of my personal photos I’ve found some with seven) is considered exceptionally lucky and is specifically used to dream of a future lover.

While the base five leaflets represent the essentials of a successful life (Love, Money, Health, Power, and Wisdom), the addition of the sixth and seventh "fingers" elevates the herb's use from physical needs to spiritual advantages:

The 6th Leaf (Luck/Success): Represents gaining an unfair advantage or a "lucky break" in gambling, legal battles, or competitive situations.

The 7th Leaf (Prophecy/Spirit Communication): Connects the practitioner to the spirit world. This is why seven-leaf sprigs are specifically sought after for dream pillows to see the face of a future spouse or to receive warnings in sleep.

In some Southern conjure traditions, finding a natural seven-leaf sprig is treated like finding a four-leaf clover. It is often pressed in a Bible or carried in a red flannel mojo bag specifically to draw "fast luck" that the standard five-leaf version might not reach.

Tip: to find a seven-finger cinquefoil, look for sulphur cinquefoil, and search the bottom leaves, which often have seven fingers. One of mine is currently pressed in my copy of The Secret Garden as my Bible is in storage (something that I really need to remedy). The box that houses my shrine to Our Lady of Perpetual Help is decorated with a plant that looks very similar to my seven fingered cinquefoil, though the artist probably intended a maple leaf (cinquefoil is in the rose family, so it seems fitting that it houses Mother Mary).

Cinquefoil is an ingredient in this recipe from the royal college of physicians and was used extensively in heraldry.

“In heraldry, the cinquefoil, a five-petalled stylized flower, symbolizes hope, joy, honour, and abundance, and it is one of the most enduring floral charges in armorial design. Its balanced form and clear outline made it especially popular in medieval heraldry, where it was valued both for its decorative appeal and its rich symbolic associations with natural beauty, flourishing life, and noble aspiration. The cinquefoil can also suggest fertility and good fortune, making it a fitting emblem for families or communities that wished to express prosperity, vitality, and established lineage. It appears widely in British and European heraldry, often as a charge on the shield but also in crests and badges, and it is particularly well known in the arms of several notable families and places where floral symbolism carries dynastic or local significance”

Delicacies

Plant of the Day

Tuesday 23 July 2024

A common, low-growing and creeping perennial Potentilla erecta (tormentil) is a wildflower of acid grassland, heathland and moorland, but it can also be found alongside roads. It has yellow, buttercup-like flowers, but with only four petals and provides nectar for solitary bees.

Walked around the university and saw some friends!

Candytuft flowers (Iberis sempervirens). I just learned that these are Brassicaceae and not Asters. :0 The flowerheads threw me off. The individual flowers have four part symmetry though like a good mustard.

Grape hyacinth (Muscari sp.). Alexis Nikole (BlackForager) did a video on these that taught me that the flowers are edible and can be used to color drinks!