Plants
Pennywort
Hydrocotyle tripartita
BeginnerFine in a closed jar
Clover-like leaves on running stems. Fills gaps fast.
What the simulation uses
- Light
- 1,500 to 10,000 lux
- The brightness it grows well in.
- Humidity
- 60 to 100 % RH
- Air moisture it is happy in; below the lower end it dries out.
- Temperature
- 18 to 28 °C
- Comfortable range; outside it growth slows.
- Dies at
- below 5 or above 33 °C
- Days beyond these temperatures kill it.
- Soil pH
- 6 to 7.5 pH
- Soil acidity it prefers.
- Grows up
- 0.5 cm/month
- How fast it gains height in good conditions.
- Spreads
- 2.75 cm/month
- How fast its edge creeps outwards.
- Copes with wet
- good
- How well it stands soggy soil; poor means rot comes quickly.
- Copes with still air
- good
- Sealed jars have still air; poor means grey mould finds it.
- Copes with shade
- good
- How well it holds on in dim light.
- Copes with drying
- poor
- How well it survives the jar drying out.
- Water use
- 0.09 ml/cm²/day
- Water drawn up from its roots per cm² of leaves in room air; a sealed jar cuts this to a fraction and returns it down the glass.
- Leaf drop
- 3 %/month
- Share of its leaves it sheds each month as litter for the cleanup crew.
- Soft leaves
- yes
- Soft new growth that hungry isopods will nibble.
- Full size
- 6.5 cm tall, 40 cm wide
- Its size when grown, before the lid stops it.
Care
- Day length
- 10 to 14 h
- Substrate
- Wet
What kills it
- drying out
- crown sitting in stagnant anaerobic water
Description
This is the pennywort sold for terrariums and the front of aquariums. Its stems creep across wet, marshy ground and root wherever they touch. Keep the soil damp and trim it when it spreads too far.
Also called hydrocotyle, Hydrocotyle sp. 'Japan', marsh pennywort.
Estimated, where sources were thin: no species-level rates, light or temperature limits found; rot behaviour in a flooded sealed jar is assumed from the shallow crown.