''Hydrocotyle'', also called floating pennywort, water pennywort, Indian pennywort, dollar weed, marsh penny, thick-leaved pennywort and white rot, is a genus of prostrate,

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 ...

aquatic or semi-

aquatic plant Aquatic plants, also referred to as hydrophytes, are vascular plants and Non-vascular plant, non-vascular plants that have adapted to live in aquatic ecosystem, aquatic environments (marine ecosystem, saltwater or freshwater ecosystem, freshwater ...

s formerly classified in the family

Apiaceae Apiaceae () or Umbelliferae is a family of mostly aromatic flowering plants named after the type genus ''Apium,'' and commonly known as the celery, carrot, or parsley family, or simply as umbellifers. It is the 16th-largest family of flowering p ...

, now in the family

Araliaceae The Araliaceae are a family of flowering plants composed of about 43 genera and around 1500 species consisting of primarily woody plants and some herbaceous plants commonly called the ginseng family. The morphology of Araliaceae varies widely ...

Description

Water pennyworts, ''Hydrocotyles'', are very common. They have long creeping stems that often form dense mats, often in and near ponds, lakes, rivers, and marshes, and some species in coastal areas by the sea. ;Leaves: Simple, with small leafy outgrowth at the base, kidney shaped to round. Leaf edges are scalloped. The leaf surfaces of ''Hydrocotyle'' are prime grounds for

oviposition The ovipositor is a tube-like organ used by some animals, especially insects, for the laying of eggs. In insects, an ovipositor consists of a maximum of three pairs of appendages. The details and morphology of the ovipositor vary, but typica ...

of many butterfly species, such as ''

Anartia fatima ''Anartia fatima'', the banded peacock, is a butterfly in the family Nymphalidae. It is commonly found in south Texas, Mexico, and Central America but most studied in Costa Rica. This butterfly prefers subtropical climates and moist areas, such a ...

''. ;Flowers: Flower clusters are simple and flat-topped or rounded.

Involucral bracts In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis or cone scale. Bracts are usually different from foliage leaves in size, color, shape or texture. They also look ...

at the base of each flower. Indistinct sepals. File:Hydrocotyle leucocephala HannesWilms.jpg, Flowering ''Hydrocotyle'' ''leucocephala'' File:Hydrocotyle vulgaris kz24.jpg, Flowering ''Hydrocotyle vulgaris'' ;Fruits and reproduction: Elliptical to round with thin ridges and no oil tubes (vitta) which is characteristic in the fruit of umbelliferous plants. :The prostrate plants reproduce by seed and by sending roots from stem nodes.

Selected species

There are over 280 species recognised in the genus ''Hydrocotyle'' that grow in

tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the equator, where the sun may shine directly overhead. This contrasts with the temperate or polar regions of Earth, where the Sun can never be directly overhead. This is because of Earth's ax ...

and

temperate In geography, the temperate climates of Earth occur in the middle latitudes (approximately 23.5° to 66.5° N/S of the Equator), which span between the tropics and the polar regions of Earth. These zones generally have wider temperature ran ...

regions worldwide. A few species have entered the world of cultivated ornamental aquatics. A list of selected species: *'' Hydrocotyle americana'' — American marshpennywort *'' Hydrocotyle bonariensis'' — largeleaf pennywort *''

Hydrocotyle bowlesioides ''Hydrocotyle'', also called floating pennywort, water pennywort, Indian pennywort, dollar weed, marsh penny, thick-leaved pennywort and white rot, is a genus of prostrate, perennial aquatic or semi-aquatic plants formerly classified in the famil ...

'' — largeleaf marshpennywort *''

Hydrocotyle heteromeria ''Hydrocotyle'', also called floating pennywort, water pennywort, Indian pennywort, dollar weed, marsh penny, thick-leaved pennywort and white rot, is a genus of prostrate, perennial aquatic or semi-aquatic plants formerly classified in the famil ...

'' — waxweed *'' Hydrocotyle geraniifolia'' *'' Hydrocotyle hexagona'' *'' Hydrocotyle hirta'' *'' Hydrocotyle hitchcockii'' *'' Hydrocotyle javanica'' *'' Hydrocotyle laxiflora'' *'' Hydrocotyle leucocephala'' — Brazilian pennywort *'' Hydrocotyle moschata'' — musky marshpennywort *'' Hydrocotyle phoenix'' — fire pennywort *'' Hydrocotyle prolifera'' — whorled marshpennywort *'' Hydrocotyle pusilla'' — tropical marshpennywort *'' Hydrocotyle ranunculoides'' — floating marshpennywort, floating marshpennywort, floating pennyroyal *'' Hydrocotyle sibthorpioides'' — lawn marshpennywort *'' Hydrocotyle tambalomaensis'' *'' Hydrocotyle tripartita'' *'' Hydrocotyle umbellata'' — manyflower marshpennywort, umbrella pennyroyal *'' Hydrocotyle verticillata'' — whorled marshpennywort, whorled marshpennywort, whorled pennyroyal *''

Hydrocotyle vulgaris ''Hydrocotyle'', also called floating pennywort, water pennywort, Indian pennywort, dollar weed, marsh penny, thick-leaved pennywort and white rot, is a genus of prostrate, perennial aquatic or semi- aquatic plants formerly classified in the fam ...

'' — marsh pennywort, common pennywort *'' Hydrocotyle yanghuangensis''

Distribution

''Hydrocotyleae'' grow in wet and damp places in the tropics and the temperate zones.

Fossil record

One

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserve ...

fruit of a ''Hydrocotyle'' sp. has been extracted from borehole samples of the

Middle Miocene The Middle Miocene is a sub-epoch of the Miocene epoch (geology), epoch made up of two Stage (stratigraphy), stages: the Langhian and Serravallian stages. The Middle Miocene is preceded by the Early Miocene. The sub-epoch lasted from 15.97 ± 0. ...

fresh water deposits in Nowy Sacz Basin, West Carpathians, Poland.Łańcucka-Środoniowa M.: Macroscopic plant remains from the freshwater Miocene of the Nowy Sącz Basin (West Carpathians, Poland) zczątki makroskopowe roślin z miocenu słodkowodnego Kotliny Sądeckiej (Karpaty Zachodnie, Polska) Acta Palaeobotanica 1979 20 (1): 3-117.

References

External links

* * {{Authority control Apiales genera Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus Aquatic plants