FIELD ID CHARACTERISTICS:
Distinctive disk-shaped leaves with petiole attached in the center. Flowering stalks are smooth and long.
Description: Low-growing, creeping, semi-aquatic, perennial herb, 15 to 25 cm high, rooted at nodes; sometimes in floating mats.
Leaves: Alternate, simple, round leaves with scalloped margins and long petioles 4 to 15 cm long.
Flowers/Fruit: Small, white flowers in simple umbels, with stalks as long as leaf petioles. Blooms April to September, fruits soon after.
Habit and Range: Fresh and brackish marshes, shaded shores of ponds and lakes, ditches, swamps. More common in the Coastal Plain than in the Piedmont.
COMMON CONFUSIONS:
Hydrocotyle umbellata (marsh pennywort) can be confused with Centella erecta (erect centella), which has petioles that are not attached at the center of their heart-shaped leaves.
Click here to view Centella erecta.
Link to side-by-side comparisons page
