Hydrocotyle vulgaris (L) Marsh Pennywort
NOMENCLATURE
Hydrocotyle : from Greek_________: hydor: water &
_________ kotyle: a dish/cup, ref. to leaves.
vulgaris : common
Pennywort : resemblance to Tudor silver pennies.
OTHER NAMES:
Pennywort. Fairy tables, water/ white rot, (Ches). Penny rot, (Shrop). Farthing rot, flowkwort,
(Norf). Rotgrass, (N'thum). Shilling rot, (Ayr). Sheep rot, War, Cumb, N'thum, Caith): all because
it was thought to cause foot rot in sheep.
BSBI Picture Link to Hydrocotyle vulgaris
BOTANICAL DESCRIPTION
TYPE : aquatic perennial herb, glabrous except for the petioles. Massed in broad batches. H.
STEMS : slender, creeping, rooting at nodes.
UMBELS : 2-3 cm diam. 3-6 flrd, sometimes 1-3 whorls of firs below. Peduncles < than petioles.
LEAVES : orbicular, 8-35mm across. peltate. crenate. 6-9 main veins, radiating from junction
of blade + petiole. Petioles 25cm, sparsely hairy, with scarious laciniate stipules. Cotyledons
contracted into a petiole.
FLOWERS : white tinged with pink, green, hermaphrodite, 1mm. Subsessile, 3-6 in a simple, head
like umbel 3mm across, sometimes with 1-3 whorls of flowers below. Sepals minute or absent.
Ovary with >or< flat disc at the apex. Stigma matures before last of 5 anthers burst. Styles not
thickened at base, maturing in succession. Self pollination. Fl. 6-7.
FRUIT : 2mm wide, wider than >, covered with brown resinous dots, v. laterally compressed.
Commisure narrow. Carpophore absent. Mericarps slender. rather prominent ridges.
Vittae present when fruit mature. Styles spread horizontally or recurved, x2 >
as disc. Stigma truncate. 2n=96.
HABITAT : marshy ground, often among mosses specifically sphagnum. Acidic soil.
DISTRIBUTION : native, <400m. Every County except Midlands & N. Scotland. W.&
C.& S. Europe to 60N, Scandanavia. Caucasus. N. Africa.
BSBI Distribution Map for Hydrocotyle vulgaris (UK)
HISTORICAL MEDICINAL USES
Culpepper, l7thC : “Good for breaking stones & voiding them.”
Whooping cough cure in Danish folk medicine.
FOLKLORE
Called -rot, in the belief it caused liver rot in sheep. The real culprit is liver fluke, which lives on the plant.
Jhon Fitzherbert : ‘Booke of Husbandrie’ 1534 “It roteth sheepe. ". . it is necessary that a
sheperde should knowe what thynge rotteth shepe.”
EXTERNAL LINKS FOR Hydrocotyle vulgaris
These links to trusted websites and institutions may provide in depth or additional information regards cultivation, chemistry, edibility, images etc. for the species. Links last updated Aug 2012.
Plants For a Future (UK)
Bio Info (UK) Bio Images (UK)
APHOTOFLORA (UK)
A Modern Herbal. M. Grieve (UK)
'Online Guide To Umbelliferae Of The British Isles' Compiled By J.M.Burton 2002
