''Dichondra repens'', commonly known as kidney weed, Mercury Bay weed, tom thumb, or yilibili in the

Dharawal The Tharawal people and other variants, are an Aboriginal Australian people, identified by the Yuin language. Traditionally, they lived as hunter–fisher–gatherers in family groups or clans with ties of kinship, scattered along the coasta ...

language, is a species of flowering plant in the family

Convolvulaceae Convolvulaceae (), commonly called the bindweed, bindweeds or morning glory, morning glories, is a Family (biology), family of about 60 genera and more than 1,650 species. These species are primarily herbaceous vines, but also include trees, sh ...

and is native to Australia, New Zealand, and the Indian Ocean islands,

Mauritius Mauritius, officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island country in the Indian Ocean, about off the southeastern coast of East Africa, east of Madagascar. It includes the main island (also called Mauritius), as well as Rodrigues, Ag ...

Réunion Réunion (; ; ; known as before 1848) is an island in the Indian Ocean that is an overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department and region of France. Part of the Mascarene Islands, it is located approximately east of the isl ...

and Rodrigues. It is a

perennial In horticulture, the term perennial ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the year") is used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. It has thus been defined as a plant that lives more than 2 years. The term is also ...

herb Herbs are a widely distributed and widespread group of plants, excluding vegetables, with savory or aromatic properties that are used for flavoring and garnishing food, for medicinal purposes, or for fragrances. Culinary use typically distingu ...

with kidney-shaped to round leaves and small, greenish-yellow, star-shaped flowers.

Description

''Dichondra repens'' is a perennial herb with a creeping habit, forming roots at the nodes. The leaves are kidney-shaped to circular, mostly long and wide on a petiole long. The base of the leaf is heart-shaped and its apex round or slightly notched. Both surfaces of the leaves are covered with soft, greyish hairs. The flowers are borne singly on a pedicel usually long, the

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 Etymology The term ''sepalum'' ...

s joined at the base with lobes long. The petals are pale greenish-yellow and joined at the base, forming a short tube with lobes about the same length as the sepal lobes. Flowering occurs throughout the year with a peak in spring and summer, more profusely from September to February with a peak in November. The fruit is a hairy, two-lobed capsule.

Taxonomy

''Dichondra repens'' was first formally described in 1775 by German naturalists

Johann Reinhold Forster Johann Reinhold Forster (; 22 October 1729 – 9 December 1798) was a German Reformed pastor and naturalist. Born in Tczew, Dirschau, Pomeranian Voivodeship (1466–1772), Pomeranian Voivodeship, Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (now Tczew, Po ...

and

Georg Forster Johann George Adam Forster, also known as Georg Forster (; 27 November 1754 – 10 January 1794), was a German geography, geographer, natural history, naturalist, ethnology, ethnologist, travel literature, travel writer, journalist and revol ...

in '' Characteres generum plantarum'', and the

lectotype In biology, a type is a particular specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally associated. In other words, a type is an example that serves to anchor or centralizes ...

collected by them in New Zealand, is in the Sammlung für Völkerkunde anthropological collection in

Göttingen Göttingen (, ; ; ) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. According to the 2022 German census, t ...

. The specific epithet ''repens'' is a Latin adjective meaning 'creeping'.

Distribution and habitat

Kidney weed is widespread in all Australian States and New Zealand, and occurs on Mauritius, Réunion and Rodrigues in the Indian Ocean. It grows in forest, woodland and grassland on clay or clay-based soils that are medium to high in nutrients, and is a weed of lawns. Associated species in New South Wales are river peppermint ('' Eucalyptus elata''), thin-leaved stringybark ('' E. eugenioides''), woollybutt ('' E. longifolia'') and snow-in-summer ('' Melaleuca linariifolia'').

Ecology

The native

Pacific black duck The Pacific black duck (''Anas superciliosa''), commonly known as the PBD, is a dabbling duck found in much of Indonesia, New Guinea, Australia, New Zealand, and many islands in the southwestern Pacific, reaching to the Caroline Islands in the no ...

(''Anas superciliosa'') eats the seeds of this species.

Use in horticulture

This species is cultivated as an ornamental plant, and can be used as a lawn substitute or groundcover in gardens.

Chemistry

''D. repens'' uses acylsugars as a chemical defence. Among these are acylated resin glycosides which synergize with

antibiotic An antibiotic is a type of antimicrobial substance active against bacteria. It is the most important type of antibacterial agent for fighting pathogenic bacteria, bacterial infections, and antibiotic medications are widely used in the therapy ...

s to reverse bacterial

multidrug resistance Multiple drug resistance (MDR), multidrug resistance or multiresistance is antimicrobial resistance shown by a species of microorganism to at least one antimicrobial drug in three or more antimicrobial categories. Antimicrobial categories are ...

(MDR).

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q859897 repens Flora of Australia Flora of New Zealand Flora of Mauritania Plants described in 1775 Taxa named by Georg Forster Taxa named by Johann Reinhold Forster Garden plants of Australia Groundcovers