Potentilla villosa is a species of flowering plant in the rose family, Rosaceae.

[3] It is native to northwestern North America, where its distribution extends from Alaska to Alberta to Oregon.

[6] It occurs on coastal bluffs and beaches, and in meadows,[5] tundra, and alpine talus.

[7] This is a rhizomatous perennial herb with a tuft of several hairy to woolly stems growing from a thick base covered in previous seasons' dead foliage.

The thick, leathery basal leaves are compound, divided into three veiny, toothed leaflets with woolly to silky-haired undersides.