Species
Hydrocotyle bowlesioides
Etymology
Hydrocotyle: water cup
Authority
Hydrocotyle bowlesioides Mathias et Constance
Family
Araliaceae
Flora Category
Vascular - Exotic
Structural Class
Dicotyledonous Herbs other than Composites
Features
Perennial herb forming large patches; stems slender, creeping, rooting at nodes, densely hairy. Tap-roots swollen, fleshy. Leaves simple, green, paler beneath, densely white hairy above and below, 0.2–5 cm diam., roundish reniform with a wide sinus at the base, the margins shallowly 5–7-lobed, the lobes obtusely triangular to crenate. Petiole slender, 0.2–20 cm long, with white hairs, especially above. Umbels simple, with 2–16 flowers, peduncles 3–15 mm long, axillary, slender. Flowers subsessile or very shortly pedicellate. Petals white with pink fringe on outer edge. Fruits minutely hispid or slightly granular, ellipsoid, about 1.5 mm wide, 1.1 mm long, styles persistent, stylopodium usually slightly depressed. Mature dry fruit has acute dorsal edges and raised ribs.
Flower Colours
Red / Pink,White
Year Naturalised
1984
Origin
Central and South America
Reason for Introduction
Unknown - soil or seed contaminant
Life Cycle and Dispersal
Perennial creeping herb. Reproduction is by rhizomatous spread and subsequent detachment and by seed. Seed is probably long-lived. Dispersed in soil, and by seed which is probably mainly water.
This page last updated on 8 Aug 2013