Whorled Pennywort

Hydrocotyle verticillata

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 (1.2 – 3.9 in)
Temperature: 4 – 27 °C (39 – 81 °F)

Native rangeRange on the map

Alabama
Angola
Argentina Northeast
Argentina Northwest
Arizona
Arkansas
Bahamas
Belize
Bermuda
Bolivia
Botswana
Brazil Southeast
Brazil South
Brazil West-Central
Burundi
California
Cape Provinces
Caprivi Strip
Chile Central
Colombia
Connecticut
Costa Rica
Cuba
DR Congo
Delaware
Dominican Republic
El Salvador
Florida
Georgia
Guatemala
Haiti
Iran
Jamaica
KwaZulu-Natal
Leeward Is.
Louisiana
Madagascar
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Mexico Central
Mexico Gulf
Mexico Northeast
Mexico Northwest
Mexico Southeast
Mexico Southwest
Mississippi
Missouri
Mozambique
Nevada
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
Nicaragua
North Carolina
Northern Provinces
Oklahoma
Oregon
Paraguay
Peru
Puerto Rico
Rhode I.
Rwanda
Somalia
South Carolina
Tanzania
Tennessee
Texas
Transcaucasus
Uganda
Uruguay
Utah
Virginia
Windward Is.
Zambia
Zimbabwe

Leaf colour: green
Plant type: rhizome
Growth rate: fast
CO₂ demand: medium
Tolerates light: medium – high
pH: 5 – 7
Carbonate hardness: 0 – 15 °dKH
General hardness: 0 – 30 °dGH
Placement: midground, foreground
Propagation: runners, cuttings +2 runners, cuttings, division, daughter plants
Grows emersed: yes

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

Matching water does not mean the fish will leave the plant alone.

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

Other varieties: Hydrocotyle verticillata Topf

Scientific and other names, conservation status

Other scientific names: Centella verticillata, Hydrocotyle ambigua, Hydrocotyle communis, Hydrocotyle cuneata, Hydrocotyle featherstoniana, Hydrocotyle interrupta, Hydrocotyle interrupta tuberosa, Hydrocotyle natans, Hydrocotyle racemosa, Hydrocotyle superposita, Hydrocotyle trilobulata, Hydrocotyle turczaninovii, Hydrocotyle umbellata ambigua, Hydrocotyle verticillata caulibus, Hydrocotyle verticillata cuneata, Hydrocotyle verticillata longipedunculata, Hydrocotyle verticillata pluriradiata, Hydrocotyle verticillata racemosa, Hydrocotyle verticillata tenella, Hydrocotyle verticillata tredecimnervis, Hydrocotyle volkmannii, Hydrocotyle vulgaris, Hydrocotyle vulgaris communis, Hydrocotyle vulgaris verticillata
Hydrocotyle verticillata: Thunb.
Family: Araliaceae
Conservation status: LC

Whorled Pennywort

Tank conditions

Care and keeping