Botanical atlas

Water Pennywort

Hydrocotyle umbellata

Water pennywort has long carpeted the muddy edges of ponds, ditches, and marshes across the Americas, its round leaves standing up like tiny green umbrellas just above the waterline. It is often mistaken in casual conversation for gotu kola (Centella asiatica), a different plant entirely that happens to share the common nickname pennywort and a long, well-recorded history in traditional herbalism. Unlike its more famous look-alike, Hydrocotyle umbellata does not carry a well-documented history of traditional medicinal use, and herbalists today generally treat it as a garden and pond plant rather than a remedy. Its true legacy is a quieter, more ecological one: holding wet soil in place, sheltering small aquatic creatures, and greening the shallow margins of water gardens season after season.

Safety.

Water Pennywort has little safety data for internal use and readily absorbs contaminants from the water it grows in, so wild material should not be eaten. It's also often confused with the unrelated herb gotu kola, and the two shouldn't be substituted for each other.