A fast growing, trailing perennial with round penny-shaped leaves attached to a stem at their center. Tiny greenish-white flowers are in multiple whorled clusters on flower stems.
Low growing perennial found in wet places, slender creeping stems or rhizomes root at nodes; leaves rounded, stemmed, basal; flowers in spikes; flowers and fruit stemmed. Stemmed flowers and fruit distinguish from the similar H. verticillata.
Habitat
Moist ground and in slow-moving or still water.
Flower Characteristics
Tiny, greenish-white; stemmed, in a few well-separated whorls around stalks that ascend directly from the runners (stolons); stalks 3/4 to 8 inches long.
Leaf and Stem Characteristics
Stems 1/8 to 3/4 inch; erect and growing directly from runners (stolons); each stem topped with a round blade attached at the underside; 1/4 to 2-1/3 inches wide; shallow lobed or notched margins.
Fruit and Seed Characteristics
Oval or egg-shaped but tapered at the ends, 1/16 to 1/8 inch wide, ribbed.