Hydrocotyle mini
Hydrocotyle sibthorpioides
Also known as Hydrocotyle sibthorpioides, Lawn pennywort, Lawn marshpennywort, Dwarf pennywort, Hydrocotyle mini
Care at a glance
- Light
- High light
- CO2
- CO₂ required
- Growth rate
- Fast
- Placement
- Foreground
- Type
- Carpeting
- Temperature
- 59–82°F (15–28°C)
- pH
- 5.0–7.5
- Hardness
- 2–14 dGH
- Max height
- 2 in (5 cm)
- Spread
- 7.9 in (20 cm)
- Nutrient uptake
- Root + water column
- Growth region
- Submersed or emersed
- Difficulty
- Medium
- Origin
- Tropical to warm-temperate Asia and tropical Africa
- Family
- Araliaceae
Overview
A denser, finer-leaved carpet than the popular Hydrocotyle Japan, but a step fussier: it wants strong light to stay low, and CO2 plus regular water-column dosing to grow compact and green rather than leggy. In low light with no CO2 it tends to decay rather than thrive. Left to itself it runs fast and piles up, so trim and press the mat down often. It can be planted as a foreground carpet, tied to hardscape, or grown emersed.
In the wild
A small creeping pennywort from tropical and warm-temperate Asia and tropical Africa, growing in damp lawns, ditches and the margins of shallow water. It spreads by thin runners that root at the nodes, throwing up tiny clover-like leaves only a centimetre or two across.
Good to know
Hydrocotyle sibthorpioides Lamarck sits in the family Araliaceae alongside the other aquarium pennyworts (it was long placed in Apiaceae). The species name honours the botanist John Sibthorp. The rounded, shallowly lobed leaves are what set it apart from the three-lobed H. tripartita often grown beside it.
Did you know
Did you know this plant is used in traditional East Asian herbal medicine, where the whole herb is known as tian hu sui, long before it ever entered the aquascaping hobby.
Where to buy
Some links may not be the exact species or variety.
- Glass Aqua Aquascaping plants and planted tank supplies
- Buce Plant Aquatic plants and aquascaping supplies
- Aquarium Plants Factory Aquatic plants shipped from a California greenhouse
…or ask your local fish store.
Appears in
High-light plants · Foreground plants · Carpeting plants · Fast growers
Growing Hydrocotyle mini?
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