# ID: Hydrocotyle species?



## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

A friend gave this to me as Hydrocotyle sibthorpioides, but the plant finder picture does not look the same. My one has deeper cuts in the leaf. What species do I have?

My hydrocotyle









APC's Hydrocotyle sibthorpioides


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## miremonster (Mar 26, 2006)

Hi Michael,
that's an interesting question. If it is all the same, Your Hydrocotyle type with the 3-lobed leaves is apparently widespread among aquascapers in Asia, but also Australia and even Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. They call the plant e.g. H. spec., H. maritima, H. sp. "Australia", H. sp. "Japan" and H. tripartita.
E.g. the "H. maritima" in "Towering peaks" from Chow Wai Sun: 
http://www.aquasaigon.org/sacrum/showthread.php?2591-IAPLC-2009-Top-27-Layouts 
It does look like the Australian H. tripartita, but also like the Asian H. sibthorpioides var. batrachium = H. formosana (I don't know how they differ). Hydrocotyle is a difficult genus containing a lot of similar species worldwide. If You could make a herbarium specimen of a fruiting emersed plant, surely Cavan would see to it


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

Haha, yes I plan to try flower it, but that might take a while. I was hoping it would be an easy confirm/or identify.

Its a pretty plant with really fast growth. I think it has a lot of potential.


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## miremonster (Mar 26, 2006)

> Its a pretty plant with really fast growth. I think it has a lot of potential.


That sounds very good, as well as what Michael Wong writes about his Hydrocotyle sp. (surely the same plant): 
http://bubblesaquarium.com/NewPlants/NewPlants_Hydrocotyle_sp_Popup.htm
Submerged easier than H. sibthorpioides - and seemingly more prostrate, too?

Here in old Germany this Hydrocotyle is apparently still unknown.


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## davemonkey (Mar 29, 2008)

I think you have the _Hydrocotyle sibthorpioides_, just one with more pronounced lobes. We saw plants identical to what you have when we went to San Marcos a couple Aprils ago (the Houston Plant Fest) and I believe they also were _H. sibthorpiodes_. Or maybe it was _Hydrocotyle ranunculoides _. Check out that one and see if it fits.


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## miremonster (Mar 26, 2006)

Hi,


> I think you have the Hydrocotyle sibthorpioides, just one with more pronounced lobes. We saw plants identical to what you have when we went to San Marcos a couple Aprils ago (the Houston Plant Fest) and I believe they also were H. sibthorpiodes.


The above mentioned Hydrocotyle sibthorpioides var. batrachium is described having more pronounced lobes than typical sibthorpioides (Flora of China, efloras.org). But also H. tripartita has a leaf form similar to Michael's Hydrocotyle:
http://weeds.massey.ac.nz/weeds.asp?pid=99&sf=common


> Or maybe it was Hydrocotyle ranunculoides . Check out that one and see if it fits.


I know H. ranunculoides as a rampant weed with underground rhizomes, considerably bigger than sibthorp., with thick, long petioles, hardly staying submerged.


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