Hydrocotyle

Hydrocotyle spp.

Distinguishing features

The leaves of the hydrocotyle species are typically about 1 cm in diameter, but can get much smaller than this in very tightly mown bowling greens or golf greens, and can also get considerably larger than this if the plants are left unmown or ungrazed for several weeks or months. One species which does have similar shaped leaves is creeping mallow, which also grows from stolons. However, under similar growing conditions, creeping mallow leaves are usually about five times bigger than hydrocotyle leaves. To tell the four hydrocotyle species apart, it's probably best to look at the side-by-side leaf photos shown on this page. If the leaves are really hairy, it will probably be H. moschata. If the leaves are quite shiny, it's probably H. heteromeria (although the shiny nature of the leaves doesn't show up well in the photo below). If the leaf breaks up into three separate leaflets like a buttercup leaf (but much smaller than buttercup), that's probably H. tripartita. All the rest I tend to classify as H. novae-zeelandiae, though I suspect some of these are probably also from the other six hydrocotyle species found within New Zealand. I’m reasonably sure the photo at the top on this page is H. novae-zeelandiae, as this species often seems to have a reddish tinge around the edges of the leaves. Note the small clusters of fruiting bodies (which are green initially then brown) are clearly evident in this photo. The middle photo showing the stolon structure is H. moschata.

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