Hydrocotyle verticillata (Whorled Pennywort)

Hydrocotyle verticillata is a North and South American aquatic-to-marginal plant that produces perfectly round, peltate (umbrella-shaped) leaves arranged in characteristic whorls along thin creeping stems. In a paludarium it spreads across the waterline margins and onto moist substrate, bridging the water and land sections with its cheerful, coin-like leaves held above the surface on fine petioles. Tiny inconspicuous flowers appear in summer at the base of the petioles.

Its versatility is remarkable: it grows fully submerged as an aquarium plant, in the emergent waterline zone of paludariums, and even as a slow-spreading terrestrial groundcover on consistently moist substrate. It prefers nutrient-rich conditions and moderate to bright lighting for its best, most compact growth. It spreads horizontally by runners and is easy to propagate by cutting rooted segments.