Shrubby Cinquefoil is a small deciduous shrub, and one rare in the British Isles. The five-petalled flowers are yellow and grow in loose clusters. The leaflets, greyish and slightly downy, usually grow in fives. The bark peels every third year or so.
The shrub is grown in gardens, as are many hybrids with related species. In the wild it is best known as growing in cold countries and at high altitudes. In Ireland it only thrives on stony or rocky ground likely to flood, as the roots need to be damp. It is still found by turloughs and lakes in north Clare and on the eastern shore of Lough Corrib.
Shrubby Cinquefoil was first discovered in Ireland in 1700 by Edward Lhuyd, Assistant Keeper of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, who was on a plant-hunting expedition in the west of the country. He recorded it as growing on the shores of Lough Corrib between limestone rocks. The flowers of this decorative plant bloom from early June until August. In Britain, Shrubby Cinquefoil grows on Helvellyn, in Upper Teesdale and, rarely, in the Lake District. It is a native of the Baltic countries, Greenland, Labrador and Alaska, and of many mountain ranges in the northern hemisphere.