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Northeast Wetland Flora

Field Office Guide to Plant Species

Floating Penny-wort
Hydrocotyle ranunculoides L.f.

JPG -- Species Photo JPG -- Distribution Map

Family: Carrot (Umbelliferae)
Flowering: July-October
Field Marks: This penny-wort has leaves that are usually a little wider than long, with the leaf stalk attached along the edge of the leaf. The stalks that bear the umbel of white flowers are shorter than the leaf stalks.
Habitat: Shallow water, in mud.
Habit: Floating or creeping perennial herb, rooting at the nodes.
Stems: Floating or creeping, slender, smooth, somewhat fleshy.
Leaves: Simple, 5- to 6-lobed, usually a little wider than long, cleft at the base where the leaf stalk is attached, smooth, up to 3 inches wide, on smooth stalks up to 1 foot long.
Flowers: Several in a small umbel, white, the umbel borne on a leafless stalk shorter than the stalk of the leaves; individual flower stalks up to 1/10 inch long.
Sepals: 0.
Petals: 5, free from each other, about 1/16 inch long, white.
Stamens: 5.
Pistils: Ovary inferior, 2-lobed; styles 2.
Fruits: Nearly round, flat, 2-lobed, brownish, with faint ribs.
Notes: Gleason and Cronquist use the name Apiaceae for this family.

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URL: http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/plants/florane/species/8/hydrranu.htm
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Page Last Modified: Thursday, 03-Aug-2006 11:39:25 EDT
Menlo Park, CA [caww54]