Brazilian pennywort Variegated

Care at a glance

Overview

Grown like the standard pennywort: plant it and let it climb, drape it over hardscape, or simply float it. Medium light keeps the cream sectors crisp, and because the variegated leaves carry less chlorophyll it appreciates CO2 and steady water column ferts more than its parent, though it remains an easy plant. The one standing chore is policing reversion: all-green shoots grow faster than marbled ones, so cut them out at the base whenever they appear or they will gradually take over. Every node roots, so trimmings replant or float without fuss.

In the wild

A cultivated sport, not a wild plant. Its parent, Hydrocotyle leucocephala, scrambles across marshy ground and stream banks in Central and South America, rooting at the nodes as it creeps and floating out across the water surface where it can. The variegated form arose and is maintained in cultivation; the marbled colouring has no wild counterpart.

Good to know

A pennywort in Araliaceae, the family Hydrocotyle landed in after being moved out of the carrot family. The species name leucocephala means white-headed, for the pale flower clusters of emersed plants. In the variegated form parts of each round, scalloped leaf lack chlorophyll, giving a cream and green marbling; like most variegation it is genetically unstable and individual shoots can revert to plain green.

Did you know

The variegation is unstable in a self-erasing direction. Reverted green shoots outgrow the marbled ones, so an untended plant slowly turns itself back into plain Brazilian pennywort; the cultivar only persists because keepers keep pruning the green.

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