''Alchemilla vulgaris'', common name Lady's mantle, is an herbaceous

perennial plant A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the years") is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also wide ...

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

and

Greenland Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland i ...

. These

perennial A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the years") is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also wid ...

wildflowers, members of the

rose A rose is either a woody perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred species and tens of thousands of cultivars. They form a group of plants that can be ...

family, are sometimes grown in gardens - mainly for their leaves, which collect sparkling water droplets. Lady's mantle is commonly seen in unimproved or lightly fertilized grassland, on roadside verges and banks, in chalk downland and on mountain slopes. Synonyms: * ''Alchemilla acutangula'' Buser * ''Alchemilla acutiloba'' Opiz * ''Alchemilla latifolia'' Salisb. * ''Alchemilla pontica'' (Buser) K.Malý * ''Potentilla acutiloba'' (Opiz) Christenh. & Väre

Identification

The distinctively corrugated and lobed (5 to 11 lobes with the upper leaves having fewer) kidney-shaped to semicircular leaves of Alchemilla make identification to

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

level fairly straightforward. The yellowish-green flowers form clusters. Each individual flower is typically 3mm in diameter, with no true petals but a four-lobed epicalyx, four

sepal A sepal () is a part of the flower of angiosperms (flowering plants). Usually green, sepals typically function as protection for the flower in bud, and often as support for the petals when in bloom., p. 106 The term ''sepalum'' was coine ...

s and usually four but sometimes five stamens. In Britain and Ireland the tiny flowers of ''Alchemilla vulgaris'' can be seen from June through to September. ''Alchemilla mollis'', a rather larger species but otherwise very similar, is quite a common garden escape that sometimes appears in hedgerows and on unkempt grassland. Other common names for Lady's Mantle are Nine Hooks, Bear's Foot, or Lion's Foot.

Species interactions

''Alchemilla vulgaris'' is a known host to a least three species of fungi, '' Coleroa alchemillae'', ''

Phoma herbarum ''Phoma herbarum'' is a fungal plant pathogen infecting various plant species, including ''Alchemilla vulgaris'', '' Arabis petraea'', '' Arenaria norvegica'', ''Armeria maritima'', ''Bartsia alpina'', ''Capsella bursa-pastoris'', ''Erysimum'', ...

'' and '' Ramularia aplospora''.Helgi Hallgrímsson & Guðríður Gyða Eyjólfsdóttir (2004)
''Íslenskt sveppatal I - smásveppir'' [Checklist of Icelandic Fungi I - Microfungi
Fjölrit Náttúrufræðistofnunar. Náttúrufræðistofnun Íslands [Icelandic Institute of Natural History]. ISSN 1027-832X

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q160189 Alchemilla, vulgaris Plants described in 1753 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus