The silver cinquefoil is a perennial in the Rosaceae family. Its Russian name lapchatka serebristaya comes from the Russian word lapa, which means paw. This is due to the similarity between its leaflets and a splayed paw of an animal. The plant has other Russian common names: sparrow family (Rus. vorobyinaya semya), mad grass (Rus. byeshenaya trava), borovoy, dubrovka (from Rus. dub – oak), zavyaznoy koren’ (Rus. zavyazyvat’ – tie, koren’ – root), etc.

The cinquefoil grows in Southwest Asia, in the European part of Russia, Western Siberia, and Bashkiria, where about 23 species have been found. In total, there are more than 300 species. Any place is good for it to thrive: meadows, fields, hillsides, wastelands, roadsides, pine and mixed forests, shrubs, forest edges. The cinquefoil likes light, and dry or slightly moist soils; it always avoids limestones.

The silver cinquefoil grows up to 50 centimeters in height. Its petioles, pedicels, and stems are covered with felty light-coloured trichomes. For this reason, the name of the species derives from the Latin word argentea, which means silver (same as Rus. serebristaya). The plant blooms from May to September. The flowers of the cinquefoil are lemon yellow, and have five petals up to 10-12 millimeters in diameter. Its fruit are small wrinkled seeds.

This perennial makes a good fodder material. Even before it starts blooming, it can be eaten by sheep, rabbits, goats, camels, sika deer, pigs, and grazing geese. Also, the silver cinquefoil is an excellent honey plant: bees willingly collect its nectar even despite the fact that some flowers are smaller than the insects themselves.

Some cinquefoil species are used for garden decoration: for example, the shrubby cinquefoil Goldfinger, which produces big and bright yellow flowers. Shrubby cinquefoils are planted to make a hedge or frame a flower bed. This low-maintenance frost-resistant plant can keep on blooming until mid-November.