Hydrocotyle bowlesioides
Common names
water pennywort
Biostatus
Exotic
Category
Vascular
Structural class
Herbs - Dicotyledons other than Composites
Flower colours
Red/Pink, White
Detailed description
Perennial herb forming large patches; stems slender, creeping, rooting at nodes, densely hairy. Tap-roots swollen, fleshy. Leaves simple, green, paler beneath, densely white hairy above and below, 0.2–5 cm diam., roundish reniform with a wide sinus at the base, the margins shallowly 5–7-lobed, the lobes obtusely triangular to crenate. Petiole slender, 0.2–20 cm long, with white hairs, especially above. Umbels simple, with 2–16 flowers, peduncles 3–15 mm long, axillary, slender. Flowers subsessile or very shortly pedicellate. Petals white with pink fringe on outer edge. Fruits minutely hispid or slightly granular, ellipsoid, about 1.5 mm wide, 1.1 mm long, styles persistent, stylopodium usually slightly depressed. Mature dry fruit has acute dorsal edges and raised ribs.
Conservation status
Not applicable
Detailed taxonomy
Genus
Family
Endemic genus
No
Endemic family
No
Ecology
Year naturalised
1984
Origin
Central and South America
Reason for introduction
Unknown - soil or seed contaminant
Life cycle and dispersal
Perennial creeping herb. Reproduction is by rhizomatous spread and subsequent detachment and by seed. Seed is probably long-lived. Dispersed in soil, and by seed which is probably mainly water.
Other information
Etymology
hydrocotyle: From the Greek hydor ‘water’ and cotyle ‘cup’, in reference to the cup-like hollow at the base if the leaf.