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Cinquefoil is rated fire resistant, with favorable regional guidance that distinguishes non-shrubby plants and makes care part of the recommendation.
Utah State University's Firewise list identifies other non-shrubby Potentilla species and hybrids. The recommendation concerns plants that are properly used and maintained. That wording matters when a gardener encounters the broad common name cinquefoil: this particular Utah entry is narrower than a recommendation for every shrub bearing that name.
Yavapai County's Arizona extension bulletin also includes Potentilla among fire-resistant plants. It describes resistant plants as tending to resist ignition with irrigation and maintenance. The care condition accompanies the favorable listing rather than being an optional addition to it.
Other publications support the choice regionally. Montana recommends cinquefoils adapted to its conditions; Michigan includes Potentilla in its climate-specific list; and King County places the group among non-succulent groundcovers. Together these recommendations make a favorable case for the perennial group while leaving the Utah scope and the Arizona care requirements intact.
Form
perennial
Rated in
Maryland, New Jersey, and West Virginia; Michigan / Great Lakes; Montana / Northern Rockies; Utah / Intermountain West +2
On this lot
1. Fire evidence and conditions
Fire evidence
Fire-resistant — location does not change the cited classification.
Maryland, New Jersey, and West Virginia; Michigan / Great Lakes; Montana / Northern Rockies; Utah / Intermountain West; Yavapai County, Arizona; western WA
Maintenance
Typed publication scope: 8 scopes across 6 cited fire sources
King County's current wildfire page links this list for the Puget Sound Basin. FireApproved publishes 82 exact source owners as basin context, not statewide Washington guidance or a site-specific recommendation.
Maryland Forest Service says the list contains plants that can be grown in Maryland and identifies Maryland natives. FireApproved publishes 169 exact source owners from the 180 printed rows; an unrepresentable form and duplicate-owner rows are not broadened. The list calls itself non-comprehensive and does not establish suitability for every Maryland site.
NJ; partial normalized coverage
New Jersey DEP publishes a state edition saying the listed plants can be grown in New Jersey and are relatively resistant to fire. Its same 180 printed taxon occurrences map to the 169 conservative owners already normalized for the template family. The list is non-comprehensive and does not establish suitability for every New Jersey site or override the Pinelands Commission's separate placement and fuel-break rules.
WV; partial normalized coverage · 2026-08-26
West Virginia Division of Forestry publishes a state edition saying the listed plants can be grown in West Virginia and are relatively resistant to fire. Its same 180 printed taxon occurrences map to the 169 conservative owners already normalized for the template family. The list is non-comprehensive and provides no comparative or site-specific rating.
Michigan State University Extension Bulletin E2948 is explicitly a list of wildfire-resistant landscape plants for Michigan and includes a Michigan-native field. FireApproved publishes 221 exact GBIF owners from 226 represented source rows and holds 15 complex or non-exact rows. This dated publication scope is not a current site-suitability determination.
The April 2022 MontGuide explicitly presents fire-resistant species adapted to Montana. FireApproved publishes 92 exact plant records from the source while retaining excluded genus, family, and unresolved rows; the guide itself says not every listed species grows in every part of the state.
Utah State University Extension states that this fact sheet selects examples for Utah landscapes and that they require proper placement and maintenance. FireApproved publishes 83 exact source owners at Utah publication scope. The table is not a site-specific planting clearance.
Yavapai County (AZ footprint); partial normalized coverage · 2025-03-14
University of Arizona Cooperative Extension authors Bulletin 34 for Yavapai County. FireApproved publishes 198 exact source owners from its resistant and prone tables and keeps the county boundary visible. County publication scope is regional Arizona context, never statewide scope.
2. Why this plant is relevant here
State distribution
Documented in MI.
Native range
Introduced / established
USDA hardiness
3. Legal, ecological, and broader status
Legal-list status
Seed-list status
Reported invasive here
Broader regional context
Federal context
How to read this page
The status above is computed from the cited rows below: independent recommendations can support a fire-resistant result, an avoid row can produce keep-away, and disagreement stays visible as conflict. Placement notes preserve each source’s own scheme rather than translating unlike rules into one scale. This is evidence about a plant, not permission to plant it in every part of the defensible space; Zone 0 remains noncombustible.
Where its sources say to plant it
Placement rules below use each source's own distances or named zones, tied to its rating.
They are not interchangeable with the directory's current Zone 0 guidance.
Firewise Landscaping Plants: Herbaceous Annuals and Perennials [Maryland Firewise plant-form tables] (with its recommendation)
The evidence
Grouped by what each source concluded. Primary evidence rated the plant itself
(a lab, field program, or original curation); corroboration compiled or
republished another source's rating and resolves to its root lineage.
Listed as Poten lla, Cinquefoil — Potentilla sp.. The bulletin says fire-resistant plants tend to resist ignition when irrigated and maintained, while fire-prone plants may ignite readily and burn intensely.
Listed as Potentilla spp. (Potentilla, Cinquefoil). The source says listed species exhibit stronger resistance to ignition by wildfires. Source comments: Native and cultivated varieties, adaptable to many conditions
