Whorled Pennywort

Hydrocotyle verticillata

rhizome midground foreground Conservation status: LC

Thunb.

Other scientific names:Centella verticillata, Hydrocotyle ambigua, Hydrocotyle communis, Hydrocotyle cuneata, Hydrocotyle featherstoniana, Hydrocotyle interrupta

Round leaves on thin upright stalks, each one like a tiny umbrella — a shape nothing else in an aquarium has. It creeps along the bottom, and getting it to fill in evenly takes bright light and patience.

Light: high
Difficulty: difficult
Height: 3 – 10 cm
Temperature: 4 – 27 °C

Leaf colourgreen

Plant typerhizome

Growth ratefast

CO₂ demandmedium

Tolerates lightmedium – high

pH5 – 7

Carbonate hardness0 – 15 °dKH

General hardness0 – 30 °dGH

Placementmidground, foreground

Propagationrunners, cuttings +2

Grows emersedyes

Appearance

Circular green leaves the size of a coin sit on top of their own stalks, 3–10 cm above a creeping stem. The leaf sits flat like a shield, which is where the name pennywort comes from.

Keeping

Demanding, mostly about light: in a dim tank the stalks stretch, the plant thins out and other plants crowd it out. It wants strong light, soft slightly acidic water, a nutritious substrate and answers well to carbon dioxide. It does not have to be rooted — it will grow floating too, and looks unusual that way.

Placement

The front and middle of the tank, where nothing shades it. With regular trimming it forms a low carpet; left alone it climbs and turns into a loose bush.

Propagation

By the creeping stem: cut off a piece with a few leaves and its own roots and press it into the substrate elsewhere.

Water conditions match

The water suits 816 of 1249 species in the catalogue — these are the ones people look up most often.

Butterflyfish Julii Corydoras Red-finned Parotocinclus Gastromyzon monticola Egg-shaped Goldfish Flame Tetra Gardner's Killifish African Tetra Hypsolebias picturatus Common Zacco Labeo Bicolor Gambusia Flying barb Gastromyzon scitulus Albino Zebra Danio Geophagus Brokopondo Homaloptera bilineata Red-tailed Rasbora Boraras naevus Lampeye Killifish Spotted Raphael Catfish Corydoras melanotaenia Festivum cichlid Pseudomugil paskai

Will eat this plant

These species damage plants, especially when their diet is short of vegetable food.

Bengal Loach Zebra Loach Burmese Border Loach Emperor Botia Marbled Headstander Pellegrin's Leporinus Leporinus striatus False Black Tetra Common Metynnis Mylossoma duriventre Red Whiptail Catfish Moonlight Gourami Melanotaenia parva

Will uproot it

These species dig through the substrate and pull rooted plants out.

Marble Loach Peacock Eel Forktail Loach Guntea Loach Long-nosed Loach Horseface Loach Pearlscale Black Moor Goldfish Shubunkin Painted Pleco Featherfin Synodontis Reddish Mystus Catfish Blue Acara Pearl Cichlid Red-spotted Cichlid Haplochromis philander Red Chromide Jack Dempsey cichlid

The same plant with a different look: light, water and care are shared with the species.

Other varieties: Hydrocotyle verticillata Topf