Over 500 Potentilla /ˌpoʊtənˈtɪlə/[1] is a genus containing over 500 species of annual, biennial and perennial herbaceous flowering plants in the rose family, Rosaceae.

Potentillas are generally found throughout the northern continents of the world (holarctic), though some occur in montane biomes of the New Guinea Highlands.

Analysis of internal transcribed spacer DNA sequence data has yielded valuable information on cinquefoil relationships, supporting previous hypotheses as to their descent, but also resulting in a number of changes to the circumscription of Potentilla.

In the United Kingdom alone, common tormentil (P. erecta) together with purple moor grass (Molinia caerulea) defines many grassy mires, and grows abundantly in the typical deciduous forest with downy birch (Betula pubescens), common wood sorrel (Oxalis acetosella), and sessile oak (Quercus petraea).

In upland pastures on calcareous soil it typically accompanies common bent (Agrostis capillaris), sheep's fescue (Festuca ovina), and wild thyme (Thymus praecox).

The Polish cochineal (Porphyrophora polonica), a scale insect once used to produce red dye, lives on cinquefoils and other plants in Eurasia.

Some, but not all, cinquefoils are insect-pollinated, producing nectar that lures bees, hoverflies, muscid flies, butterflies, true bugs, and ants.

[6] One fossil fruitlet of †Potentilla pliocenica has been described from a middle Miocene stratum of the Fasterholt area near Silkeborg in Central Jutland, Denmark.

[7] Four fossil fruits of †Potentilla pliocenica have been extracted from bore hole samples of the Middle Miocene fresh water deposits in Nowy Sacz Basin, West Carpathians, Poland.

Depiction of the five-petalled flower appears as early as 1033, in the architecture of the church built in the village of Reulle-Vergy in Burgundy, France, two years before the reign of William the Conqueror.

The cinquefoil emblem was used generously in the architecture of numerous churches built in Normandy and Brittany through the 15th century.

From the 11th to 14th century, the word potence, related to potentilla, was used mainly in a military context and to describe the condition of the soul.