Hydrocotyle bonariensis
Family: Apiaceae
Plant Description: Perennial to 35 cm high with creeping stems, rooting at the nodes and forming mats. Leaves peltate, roundish, or broader than long, usually 3-8 cm wide, alternate. Flowers in compound umbels, petioles attached to the center of the leaf. Petals 1-1.5 mm long, whitish to pale yellow.
Plant Trivia: Spanish refers to the leaf meaning “little hat.”
Field Identification:
Occurrence: Common on coastal sands in swales, depressions, marshes, and other moist grounds.
Bloom Period: March-November
Plant Use:
Key to the species of Hydrocotyle:
- Flowers in a simple umbel…………………………………………………..H. umbellata
Flowers in a compound umbel or an interrupted spike……………………..2
2. Inflorescence a compound umbel………………………………….H. bonariensis
Inflorescence a simple or branched spike………………………….H. verticillata
stxflora 