Flower:

Flowers are in tightly packed clusters of 2 to 6 flowers at the tips of branching stems at the top of the plant. Individual flowers are ½ to ¾ inches across with 5 white to creamy colored petals, 5 sharply pointed green sepals about as long as the petals, and about 20 golden yellow stamens surrounding a golden yellow center. Typically only a few flowers are open at a time.

Leaves and stem:

Leaves are compound with 7 to 11 leaflets. Most leaves are basal on long stalks, with a few leaves alternating up the stem. Leaflets are up to 3 inches long and 2 inches wide, generally oval, very hairy, coarsely toothed and often double toothed. Stem leaves are smaller, have fewer than 7 leaflets and little or no stalk. Leaflets at the tip end of the leaf are largest. Stems are erect, usually single, unbranched except in the flower clusters, and a little sticky from a dense covering of glandular hairs.

Fruit:

The sepals fold up, creating a capsule-like container, and eventually turn dark brown. Inside are many small brown seeds. The old fruiting stems can persist through winter.

Notes:

The flowers of Tall Cinquefoil vaguely resemble those of Sulphur Cinquefoil (Potentilla recta), which has palmately compound leaves. This species was formerly known as Potentilla arguta with 2 varieties/subspecies, both of which are now separate species of Drymocallis. D. arguta is the only Drymocallis species found east of the Rocky Mountains.