Common name: Largeleaf Pennywort, Large-leaved Pennywort, Beach Pennywort, Coastal Plain Pennywort
Hydrocotyle bonariensis Lam. APNI*
Description: Perennial herb, glabrous; with rhizomes, stems creeping and rooting at the nodes.
Leaves peltate; lamina mostly 30–120 mm diam., shallowly lobed, margins or lobes crenate, lamina fleshy, glabrous; petiole mostly to 15 cm long; stipules scarious, 2–4 mm long.
Umbels compound, many-flowered, 1–6 cm diam.; rays many, spreading, with the flowers in whorls in the form of interrupted or sometimes branched spikes and clustered at the base of the rays; peduncle to 40 cm long, but usually shorter, as long as or usually longer than the leaves; pedicels 2–20 mm long; involucral bracts lanceolate, acute. Petals white to creamy yellow.
Fruit transversely ellipsoid, 1.5–2 mm long, 2.5–3 mm wide, base and apex emarginate; dorsal and lateral ribs prominent.
Flowering: throughout year, especially October–February
Distribution and occurrence: Colonizer of coastal dunes and on sandy soil on cliff faces, along creeks and swamps near the coast, weed of coastal lawns. Native of S Amer.
NSW subdivisions: *NC, *CC, *SC, *LHI
Other Australian states: *Qld *Vic. *W.A. *S.A.
Formerly in Apiaceae.
Text by S. M. Hastings & B. M. Wiecek Taxon concept: Flora of NSW 3 (1992)
APNI* Provides a link to the Australian Plant Name Index (hosted by the Australian National Botanic Gardens) for comprehensive bibliographic data ***The AVH map option provides a detailed interactive Australia wide distribution map drawn from collections held by all major Australian herbaria participating in the Australian Virtual Herbarium project.
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