Photo: Ranjith-chemmad, CC BY-SA 4.0 (via Wikimedia Commons)

Water Pennywort

Hydrocotyle umbellata

Also known as Manyflower Marsh-Pennywort, Dollarweed, Umbrella Pennywort

At a glance

Family

Araliaceae (formerly classified in Apiaceae)

Type

Perennial aquatic to semi-aquatic herb

Parts used

Leaves (primarily ornamental and ecological use; medicinal use is not well documented)

Size

Low, spreading groundcover with round leaves 1 to 5 cm (0.5 to 2 in) across on creeping stems

Bloom

Tiny white to greenish flowers in small umbels, spring through fall

Habitat

Pond edges, marshes, ditches, wet meadows, and damp lawns across the Americas

Acquisition

Grow or buy

This plant in HerbSense

Key benefits

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Popular pond and water-garden plant

Helps stabilize wet, muddy banks

Shelter for pollinators and small wildlife

Long history of folk curiosity

Traditional uses

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Water pennywort has long carpeted the muddy edges of ponds, ditches, and marshes across the Americas, its round leaves standing up like tiny green umbrellas just above the waterline. It is often mistaken in casual conversation for gotu kola (Centella asiatica), a different plant entirely that happens to share the common nickname pennywort and a long, well-recorded history in traditional herbalism. Unlike its more famous look-alike, Hydrocotyle umbellata does not carry a well-documented history of traditional medicinal use, and herbalists today generally treat it as a garden and pond plant rather than a remedy. Its true legacy is a quieter, more ecological one: holding wet soil in place, sheltering small aquatic creatures, and greening the shallow margins of water gardens season after season.

How to grow & use it

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Pairs well with

✦Pickerelweed
✦Water lettuce
✦Dwarf papyrus

Substitutes

✦Centella asiatica, Gotu Kola (a different plant sharing the pennywort name)
✦Hydrocotyle bonariensis, Beach Pennywort

Choose it when

“For the quiet, waterlogged corners of a garden where round green leaves are welcome to spread.”

Did you know?

The genus name Hydrocotyle comes from the Greek hydor, meaning water, and kotyle, meaning a small cup, a nod to the neat, cup-like way each round leaf meets its stem.

Safety

Water Pennywort has little safety data for internal use and readily absorbs contaminants from the water it grows in, so wild material should not be eaten. It's also often confused with the unrelated herb gotu kola, and the two shouldn't be substituted for each other.