Hydrocotyle verticillataThunb.

whorled marshpennywort

WFO wfo-0000726628 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Hydrocotyle verticillata, photographed by Brooke Smith
fig. a Brooke Smith, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-06-11 / obs. 205297154

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 76 botanical countries

Regions where Hydrocotyle verticillata is native: Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Cape Provinces, Caprivi Strip, DR Congo, KwaZulu-Natal, Madagascar, Mozambique, Northern Provinces, Rwanda, Somalia, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Iran, Transcaucasus, Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mexico Central, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southeast, Mexico Southwest, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode I., South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Argentina Northeast, Argentina Northwest, Bahamas, Belize, Bermuda, Bolivia, Brazil South, Brazil Southeast, Brazil West-Central, Chile Central, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward Is., Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Uruguay, Windward Is. AngolaBotswanaBurundiCape ProvincesCaprivi StripDR CongoKwaZulu-NatalMadagascarMozambiqueNorthern ProvincesRwandaSomaliaTanzaniaUgandaZambiaZimbabweIranTranscaucasusAlabamaArizonaArkansasCaliforniaConnecticutFloridaGeorgiaLouisianaMaineMarylandMassachusettsMexico CentralMexico GulfMexico NortheastMexico NorthwestMexico SoutheastMexico SouthwestMississippiMissouriNevadaNew JerseyNew MexicoNew YorkNorth CarolinaOklahomaOregonSouth CarolinaTennesseeTexasUtahVirginiaArgentina NortheastArgentina NorthwestBelizeBoliviaBrazil SouthBrazil SoutheastBrazil West-CentralChile CentralColombiaCosta RicaCubaDominican RepublicEl SalvadorGuatemalaHaitiJamaicaNicaraguaParaguayPeruPuerto RicoUruguay DelawareRhode I.BahamasBermudaLeeward Is.Windward Is.
Native distribution of Hydrocotyle verticillata, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Alabama ALA NORTHERN AMERICA
Arizona ARI
Arkansas ARK
California CAL
Connecticut CNT
Delaware DEL
Florida FLA
Georgia GEO
Louisiana LOU
Maine MAI
Maryland MRY
Massachusetts MAS
Mexico Central MXC
Mexico Gulf MXG
Mexico Northeast MXE
Mexico Northwest MXN
Mexico Southeast MXT
Mexico Southwest MXS
Mississippi MSI
Missouri MSO
Nevada NEV
New Jersey NWJ
New Mexico NWM
New York NWY
North Carolina NCA
Oklahoma OKL
Oregon ORE
Rhode I. RHO
South Carolina SCA
Tennessee TEN
Texas TEX
Utah UTA
Virginia VRG
Argentina Northeast AGE SOUTHERN AMERICA
Argentina Northwest AGW
Bahamas BAH
Belize BLZ
Bermuda BER
Bolivia BOL
Brazil South BZS
Brazil Southeast BZL
Brazil West-Central BZC
Chile Central CLC
Colombia CLM
Costa Rica COS
Cuba CUB
Dominican Republic DOM
El Salvador ELS
Guatemala GUA
Haiti HAI
Jamaica JAM
Leeward Is. LEE
Nicaragua NIC
Paraguay PAR
Peru PER
Puerto Rico PUE
Uruguay URU
Windward Is. WIN
Angola ANG AFRICA
Botswana BOT
Burundi BUR
Cape Provinces CPP
Caprivi Strip CPV
DR Congo ZAI
KwaZulu-Natal NAT
Madagascar MDG
Mozambique MOZ
Northern Provinces TVL
Rwanda RWA
Somalia SOM
Tanzania TAN
Uganda UGA
Zambia ZAM
Zimbabwe ZIM
Iran IRN ASIA-TEMPERATE
Transcaucasus TCS

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Flowering 412 in flower of 544 examined

Proportion of examined Hydrocotyle verticillata in flower, by month
Month In flower Examined Share 95% interval
Jan 12 24 50% 31% to 69%
Feb 14 23 61% 41% to 78%
Mar 39 45 87% 74% to 94%
Apr 68 86 79% 69% to 86%
May 57 73 78% 67% to 86%
Jun 61 73 84% 73% to 90%
Jul 48 60 80% 68% to 88%
Aug 45 57 79% 67% to 88%
Sep 34 43 79% 65% to 89%
Oct 17 27 63% 44% to 78%
Nov 10 18 56% 34% to 75%
Dec 7 15 47% 25% to 70%

Peak flowering in Mar. Each bar is the share of Hydrocotyle verticillata observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 412 of 544 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Where it actually grows measured, from 1,999 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 0.9 °C 12.2 °C 19.2 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 25.0 °C 30.4 °C 35.1 °C
Annual rainfall 485 mm 1,830 mm 3,868 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 20 mm 166 mm 628 mm

It is found where winters are cool but frost is light or absent. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 1,999 research-grade observations of Hydrocotyle verticillata that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one. Climate from CHELSA V2.1 (Karger et al. 2017); occurrences from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Also published as 24 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Centella homalocarpa Drude
  • Centella verticillata (Thunb.) Fourc.
  • Hydrocotyle ambigua Britton, Sterns & Poggenb.
  • Hydrocotyle communis DC.
  • Hydrocotyle cuneata J.M.Coult. & Rose
  • Hydrocotyle featherstoniana Jenn.
  • Hydrocotyle fetherstoniana Jenn.
  • Hydrocotyle interrupta Muhl.
  • Hydrocotyle interrupta var. tuberosa DC.
  • Hydrocotyle natans Torr.
  • Hydrocotyle racemosa Moc. & Sessé ex DC.
  • Hydrocotyle superposita Baker
  • Hydrocotyle trilobulata Gand.
  • Hydrocotyle umbellata var. ambigua A.Gray
  • Hydrocotyle verticillata var. cuneata (J.M.Coult. & Rose) Jeps.
  • Hydrocotyle verticillata var. longipedunculata Urb.
  • Hydrocotyle verticillata var. pluriradiata Urb.
  • Hydrocotyle verticillata var. racemosa (Moc. & Sessé ex DC.) Mathias
  • Hydrocotyle verticillata var. tenella Urb.
  • Hydrocotyle verticillata var. tredecimnervis Urb.
  • Hydrocotyle volkmanni Phil.
  • Hydrocotyle vulgaris Michx.
  • Hydrocotyle vulgaris var. communis Cham. & Schltdl.
  • Hydrocotyle vulgaris var. verticillata (Thunb.) Pers.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.