Hydrocotyle


Hydrocotyle, sometimes called water pennywort, Indian pennywort, marsh penny, thick-leaved pennywort and even white rot
is a genus of prostrate, perennial aquatic or semi-aquatic plants formerly classified in the family Apiaceae, now in the family Araliaceae.

Description

Water pennyworts, Hydrocotyles, are very common. They have long creeping stems that often form dense mats, often in and near ponds, lakes, rivers, 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 of many butterfly species, such as Anartia fatima.
;Flowers: Flower clusters are simple and flat-topped or rounded. Involucral bracts Inconspicuous bracts at the base of each flower. Indistinct sepals.
;Fruits and reproduction: Elliptical to round with thin ridges and no oil tubes which is characteristic in the fruit of umbelliferous plants.

Selected species

The genus Hydrocotyle has between 75 and 100 species. that grow in tropical and temperate regions worldwide A few species have entered the world of cultivated ornamental aquatics. A list of selected species:
Hydrocotyleae grow in wet and damp places in the tropics and the temperate zones.

Fossil record

One fossil fruit of a Hydrocotyle sp. has been extracted from borehole samples of the Middle Miocene fresh water deposits in Nowy Sacz Basin, West Carpathians, Poland.