Cinquefoils

Cinquefoils are five-lobed floral motifs used in heraldry, decorative art, and design. The name derives from Old French cinqfeuille, meaning five leaves, and it describes a shape with five rounded petals or lobes arranged symmetrically around a central point.

In heraldry, the cinquefoil is a common charge and ornament. It appears on shields, crests, and badges, typically rendered as five equal lobes forming a rose-like figure. Cinquefoils may be depicted singly or in groups, and they vary in size, orientation, and treatment of the lobes, but retain the characteristic five-lobed form.

Beyond heraldry, cinquefoils are used in architecture, tilework, embroidery, and metalwork as decorative motifs. They function as floral or geometric embellishments and are often employed to evoke a medieval or historic aesthetic. The motif is distinct from five-pointed stars, since it is defined by five connected lobes rather than points.

Other uses of the term exist. In botany, cinquefoil is a common name for several species in the genus Potentilla, frequently noted for five-petaled flowers and leaves with multiple lobes. In mathematics, the cinquefoil knot is a torus knot, denoted as T(2,5), and is a well-known simple nontrivial knot sometimes called the cinquefoil.