Species
+

Hydrocotyle verticillata Thunb.

Barbados hearth, Herbe-mare (Lesser Antilles), Papitas fritas (Dominican Republic), Water Coin

Climate known 62 photographs
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Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Hydrocotyle verticillata, also known as whorled pennywort, whorled marshpennywort or shield pennywort, is a flowering plant found in South and North America and the West Indies. Its creeping habit and unusual leaves give it its common names. It grows in places that are marshy, boggy, or even wet. Hydrocotyle verticillata is used in aquaria, where it is undemanding; it does prefer a good substrate, however, and at least moderate light. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Hydrocotyle verticillata”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Hydrocotyle

Hydrocotyle, also called floating pennywort, water 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 family Apiaceae, now in the family Araliaceae.

Text from Wikipedia, “Hydrocotyle”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Araliaceae
Described by
Thunb.
Native to
Burundi, Rwanda, Zaïre +73
Wild records
941 in range· 407 open

At a glance

Warmest month
31°C
Jul, mean day; nights 23 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1087mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jul 113 mm (CHELSA)
Light
18–40DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (March, May to October and December in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 1087 mm a year, wettest July at 113 mm, driest April at 73 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 18 to 40 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -3.8 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Centella verticillata (Thunb.) Fourcade; Hydrocotyle ambigua Britton, Sterns & Poggenb.; Hydrocotyle communis DC.; Hydrocotyle cuneata J.M.Coult. & Rose; Hydrocotyle featherstoniana Jenn. and 20 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (March, May to October and December in the northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (783 mm of 1087 mm) takes 8 months, March, May to October and December. Mean temperature moves 15.9 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to April, June and September.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1087 mm a year, wettest July at 113 mm, driest April at 73 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1087 mm a year at the habitat, 783 mm of it March, May to October and December. Wettest month July at 113 mm, driest April at 73 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 406 mm to 1637 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 18 to 40 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 18 to 40 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 14, the highest 90th-percentile month 52).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor -3.8 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -3.8 °C, the absolute minimum -13.7 °C, about 17 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 40.6 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 7.0 °C in January (across the envelope cells 0.8 °C to 20.0 °C), warmest day 31.2 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -3.8 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 57 to 61% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 17 °C in Jan to 31 °C in Jul; mean night from 7 °C in Jan to 23 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1087 mm of rain a year, most in Jul. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 767 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -13.7 °C and the 99th-percentile day 40.6 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-20°-10°10°20°30°40°50°frost40.6° 99th-percentile day (undated)-13.7° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250mm rainDLI 18–40RH 57–61 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 767 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C17 / 10–2719 / 12–2822 / 16–2925 / 19–3028 / 21–3130 / 21–3331 / 21–3431 / 22–3429 / 23–3126 / 20–2921 / 16–2817 / 11–27
Night °C7 / 1–208 / 2–2011 / 5–2014 / 9–2018 / 12–2322 / 12–2423 / 12–2523 / 13–2520 / 14–2416 / 12–2212 / 7–218 / 3–21
Rain mm79 / 22–14577 / 18–14391 / 15–14873 / 16–12192 / 9–137112 / 3–214113 / 4–206103 / 5–213101 / 10–21291 / 22–14975 / 19–13480 / 16–149
DLI20 / 16–3525 / 21–3832 / 28–4038 / 33–4640 / 31–4940 / 29–5239 / 30–4937 / 32–4532 / 29–3927 / 24–3622 / 17–3618 / 14–36
RH %58 / 53–6358 / 52–6257 / 50–6257 / 49–6259 / 49–6360 / 51–6461 / 51–6561 / 52–6560 / 52–6558 / 52–6358 / 52–6258 / 53–62

Each figure is the median across the 767 grid cells holding the 909 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1194:1686 (30.275, -95.675). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -13.7 °C, 1st-percentile night -3.8 °C, 99th-percentile day 40.6 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 767 distinct grid cells holding the 909 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1194:1686 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 30.50_-95.625, lapse-corrected -17 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 63 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeBurundi, Rwanda, Zaïre, Somalia, Tanzania, Uganda, Angola, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Cape Provinces, Caprivi Strip, KwaZulu-Natal, Northern Provinces, Madagascar, Transcaucasus, Iran, Oregon, Missouri, Oklahoma, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Rhode I., Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Bahamas, Bermuda, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Windward Is., Bolivia, Colombia, Peru, Brazil West-Central, Brazil Southeast, Brazil South, Argentina Northeast, Argentina Northwest, Chile Central, Paraguay, Uruguay· introduced: Belgium, Spain, Gulf States, Assam, India, West Himalaya, Myanmar, New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Victoria, Western Australia, Hawaii
Kew's description“helophyte” · “wet tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker30.372, -97.785 · in the densest population, 247 records (26% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 941 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 407 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 203 km away. 868 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 32 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 941 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Hydrocotyle verticillataHydrocotyle verticillataHydrocotyle verticillataHydrocotyle verticillataHydrocotyle verticillataHydrocotyle verticillataHydrocotyle verticillataHydrocotyle verticillata

Photographs: (c) Alison Northup, some rights reserved (CC BY) (5); (c) scallions, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Hydrocotyle verticillata, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Use of sediment CO2 by submersed rooted plants
Anders Winkel, Jens Borum (2009) · Annals of Botany
Nutrient removal performance from agricultural drainage by strengthening ecological ditches in hilly areas
Jian Zhang, Min Yan, Xin Lu, Tao Wang (2023) · Agricultural Water Management
New alien species of flowering plants to the flora of the Arabian Peninsula
V. V. Byalt, M. V. Korshunov (2020) · Novitates Systematicae Plantarum Vascularium
Endophytic Fungi from Four Indonesian Medicinal Plants and Their Inhibitory Effect on Plant Pathogenic Fusarium oxysporum
Nampiah Sukarno, Rohani Cinta Badia Ginting, Utut Widyastuti, Latifah Kosim Darusman (2021) · HAYATI Journal of Biosciences
Understanding unique tolerance limits in Hydrocotyle verticillata: From submergence to water deficiency
Liudmyla Kozeko, Yu. V. Ovcharenko, Sigita Jurkonienė, Е.L. Kordyum (2023) · Aquatic Botany
Flórula y vegetación de "Els Ullals de Na Molins" (La Albufera. Valencia): referencia de un estado intermedio
Pablo Vera García, Anna Valentín Benzal (2009) · Flora montibérica/Flora montiberica
Hydrocotyle verticillata Thunb. (Apiaceae) - A new angiospermic record for Bangladesh
B.M. Rezia Khatun, Md. Oliur Rahman, Syeda Sharmeen Sultana (1970) · Bangladesh Journal of Plant Taxonomy
Dades de plantes al·lòctones per a l’est de la península Ibèrica
R. Senar, S. Cardero (2019) · Collectanea Botanica
Macrófitos de los humedales de montaña de San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas, México
Sandra Emilia Chediack, Neptalı́ Ramı́rez-Marcial, Miguel Martínez‐Icó, Henry Eustorgio Castañeda-Ocaña (2018) · Revista Mexicana de Biodiversidad

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 142 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.