# Pennywort planting methods



## Luffy (Aug 23, 2012)

Quick question about Pennywort to those of you who use it... what are the different ways you can plant pennywort? I have been growing mine either floating or like the other stem plants, just taking it and sticking the bottom of the stem in the ground. The result is wonderful buuuut I have seen it grown as more of a foreground groundcover. How does this work? Do you just bury the stock lengthwise parallel with the gravel? Does the stem melt if you do that? Or is it just that the plant sometimes grabs hold of the soil and crawls horizontally instead of diagonally?


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## miremonster (Mar 26, 2006)

Hello Luffy,
do You mean Lysimachia nummularia (see APC Plantfinder)? My tank experiences with that plant are rather limited, but I'd say it grows always upright when submersed while it does creep in its terrestrial form.
Or maybe You've seen Micranthemum umbrosum? It looks quite similar to L. nummularia but is much smaller.

-Heiko

p.s. Or do You mean a Hydrocotyle of any kind?


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## Luffy (Aug 23, 2012)

I believe the first one you mentioned is called Moneywort and the second is commonly called Baby Tears. I'm talking about a Hydrocotyle, probably Hydrocotyle leucocephala (Brazilian Pennywort).


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## miremonster (Mar 26, 2006)

Luffy said:


> I believe the first one you mentioned is called Moneywort


OK; I've also read Pennywort as common name for Lysimachia nummularia, but now I realize this plant is more commonly called Moneywort in the aquarium hobby. But the common names are mostly ambiguous anyway.


> and the second is commonly called Baby Tears.


Yes; I wrote it because in pics M. umbrosum can look quite similar to L. nummularia, if the size is unknown.


> I'm talking about a Hydrocotyle, probably Hydrocotyle leucocephala (Brazilian Pennywort).


There's indeed written in the APC plantfinder that H. leucocephala can also be used as ground cover. Till now I didn't have seen examples for that. But I mean that the other Hydrocotyle species in the aquarium hobby are better suited for this purpose.


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## Diana K (Dec 20, 2007)

I think it is OK to bury the stem, but you can also get it to root by laying the stem at the surface and putting some small rocks on it. (perhaps 1/2" diameter). Make sure the part of the stem where the leaf grows is in good contact with the soil, that is also where the roots will grow from. 

I have not really gotten a good ground cover out of it. It keeps taking off and growing vertically, and it will make laps around the top, or will crawl out of the tank and hang down. Seems to me this is one of those plants that really prefers being grown emersed.


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## Luffy (Aug 23, 2012)

Good to know! I'm tempted to just let it crawl up and out and wherever it wants cause it's very pretty. It just grows so fast that I'm looking to get multiple uses out of it if I can. I'll soon have more than I know what to do with  Thanks for the info!


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## totziens (Jun 28, 2008)

I have just planted hydrocotyle in my tank today. Basically, I plant them the same way as planting glosso. I would say it's pretty tedious. I cut each stem and plant them one by one. To be honest, I cheated by planting 2-3 stems together without cutting them. I am expecting them to grow vertically. Let's see whether they will grow according to by expectation. I am more concern about them failing to convert from emersed to submerged form as I got mine from a flower pot in a garden.


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## miremonster (Mar 26, 2006)

totziens said:


> I have just planted hydrocotyle in my tank today. Basically, I plant them the same way as planting glosso. I would say it's pretty tedious. I cut each stem and plant them one by one. To be honest, I cheated by planting 2-3 stems together without cutting them. I am expecting them to grow vertically. Let's see whether they will grow according to by expectation. I am more concern about them failing to convert from emersed to submerged form as I got mine from a flower pot in a garden.


Is Your Hydrocotyle the small one here in Your photo?: http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/showpost.php?p=640073&postcount=1
That's surely Hydrocotyle sibthorpioides, a frequent weedy species in many warm regions of the world.
http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/plantfinder/details.php?id=142
It should do, but is apparently more demanding than the similar and very easy Hydrocotyle cf. tripartita.


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## totziens (Jun 28, 2008)

Yes, that's the Hydrocotyle I am using. I personally don't know which type of Hydrocotyle. There is a possibility that you got the right type as the description is similar. Yes, I found them emersed from a pot in the garden growing wild and spread very fast like weeds. My mother-in-law actually treated them as weeds by removing them until I stopped her. A Vietnamese has also has identified that it could be used for traditional medical purpose (Cannot recall for what sickness. The mother of the Vietnamese is a medicine woman). My mother-in-law has stopped eliminating the Hydrocotyle completely these days knowing they're useful weeds


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## miremonster (Mar 26, 2006)

That sounds much like H. sibthorpioides. In a greenhouse in the Botanical Garden Goettingen that species is really a weed, reproducing also by seeds. Years ago I've seen it as weed in bonsai pots likely imported from Asia. And it's apparently used medicinally in many countries, also in Traditional Chinese Medicine: http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=2&taxon_id=242325781


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## totziens (Jun 28, 2008)

Actually it has a strong herbal smell. I realised that when I was planting them.


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