Marsh pennywort |
Flowers, fruits and leaf of the marsh pennywort
| Hydrocotyle vulgaris L.: | |
| Blooming period: | July–August |
| Height: | 5–25 cm |
| Flowers: | actinomprphic, Ø, approx. 1 mm, bisexual, stamens: 5, styles: 2 |
| Petals: | 5, whitish, greenish or reddish |
| Sepals: | 5, very small or absent |
| Stem leaves: | alternate, peltate, notched |
Plant perennial, herbaceous.
Stem prostrate, creeping, fine, up to 1 m long, rooting at the nodes.
Leaves long-petiolate, with membranous, splitted stipules.
Leaves alternate, peltate, notched, glossy, underside sometimes hairy, Ø up to 4 cm with 6–9 radially extending leaf veins. Petioles up to 25 cm long, long hairy.
Flowers in 3- to 6-flowered, axillary clusters or whorls, almost sessile. Stalks of inflorescences about half as long as the petioles.
Each flower possesses a single bract.
Petals 5, greenish or whitish to reddish, sepals absent or very small, stamens 5, 2 spreading or recurved styles.
From the ovary formed by selfing an approximately 2 mm long fruit that is stalked very short, clearly ribbed, laterally flattened, elliptical and 2-seeded. Plant overwintering green, poisonous!
| Floral formula: |
| * K0–5 C5 A5 G(2) inferior |
Occurrence:
Moors,
marshy meadows, edges of ponds and ditches. Prefers wet, acidic and
very nutrient-poor locations.
Distribution:
Almost
all of Europe, North Africa and Belarus. In northern Germany
frequently, in Southern Germany extremely endangered.