The open plant encyclopedia
Snap a photo or search by any name to see how to care for it, where it comes from, whether it's safe, and a 3D model you can turn.
The plants people record most in your country, and ones that grow there wild.
Filter by what you want to do, shape, origin, country, care and safety.
Hydrocotyle sibthorpioides
Also called Lawn Water Pennywort, Lawn Marsh Pennywort, Lawn Pennywort, Sibthorp's Pennywort
Hydrocotyle sibthorpioides is a small species of flowering plant native to southeastern Asia. It is also referred to as lawn marshpennywort. It is a dicot, formerly placed in the family Apiaceae, but more recently shown to belong in the Araliaceae. It grows in abundance when the conditions are right. Hydrocotyle sibthorpioides originated in southeastern Asia, but is slowly spreading in the United States, along with other places around the world. It can grow in a wide variety of habitats. It has been used for medicinal purposes in Asia and is also common in the aquarium trade.
The phytoconstituents of H. sibthorpioides have shown a wide range of therapeutic utility, although pharmacological use is only justified if it has a satisfactory safety profile. There is no indication that the plant or its extracts have ever been tested in a clinical experiment. Following OECD standards 425, Hazarika et al. (2019) conducted a preclinical acute toxicity investigation on several extracts of H. sibthorpioides using albino rats, and found that the LD50 was larger than 2000 mg/kg of body weight.
Hydrocoytle sibthorpioides is most common in southeastern Asia. Although it is native to Asia, there are parts of the United States where this plant thrives as an introduced species, particularly in the eastern US and some areas in California. Recently, it has been reported to flourish in southeast Australia, where it occurs in Brisbane and Sydney, is native to Western Australia. This species is able to grow in a wide variety of habitats, from dry areas to locations that are occasionally submerged. It can also be found between sidewalk cracks, and is increasingly occurring as a lawn weed.
Many tribes in the world use H. sibthorpioides to treat fever, edoema, dysentery, rheumatalgia, whooping cough, jaundice, throat discomfort, psoriasis, herpes zoster infection, hepatitis-B infection, calming pain, dysmenorrhoea, and carbunculosis. In Assam, it is also employed as a hepatoprotective agent, a brain tonic, and a detoxifying agent. Bengali villagers use the entire plant for bone fractures. Extracts of this plant have been found to be free from toxicity up to a dose of 2000 mg/kg in rats. In Chinese traditional medicine, it is known as Jiangxi Jinqiancao.
American marshpennywort · Largeleaf pennywort · Hydrocotyle digitata · Forest Pennywort · Hydrocotyle hexagona · Hairy Pennywort · Hydrocotyle hitchcockii · Nepalese Pennywort · Hydrocotyle laxiflora · Musky marshpennywort · Hydrocotyle phoenix · Whorled marshpennywort
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Hydrocotyle sibthorpioides by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts are shared under the same licence.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
