Common Tormentil

fairly short plant in a wooded area. The flower looks like a buttercup but with 4 petals instead of 5. from http://www.twocrows.co.uk/kaleidescopes/text-pages/tormentil-text.html 'Containing more tannin than oak bark, all parts of tormentil are strongly astringent, finding use wherever that action is required. This plant is considered to be one of the safest native astringents and it is widely used in herbal medicine in the treatment of diarrhoea, dysentery, sore throats etc. The whole plant, and especially the root, is antibiotic, strongly astringent, haemostatic and hypoglycaemic.' from wikipedia: 'The rhizomatous root is thick. It is inappropriate to be used for food due to extreme bitterness and low caloric value. It can be used as a vegetable dye to dye leather red.

The plant is particularly used in herbal medicine as an astringent because of its tannin content, which is unusually high for a herbaceous plant.' It is sold dried as a herb to smoke but reportedly doesn't seem to take much effect: http://burnonewith.us/juicy-herbs-potentilla-erecta-review/