Hydrocotyle bonariensis Lam.
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Detail
- Family
- Araliaceae
- Botanical Name
- Hydrocotyle bonariensis Lam.
- Common Name
- Coastal Water-pennywort, Dune Water-pennywort, Large-leaf Pennywort
- Synonym(s)
- Flora of Virginia Name/Status
- Hydrocotyle bonariensis Lam.
- Comments
- Long thought to be a native component of southeastern Coastal Plain dunes, this species now appears to be a naturalized introduction from South America. In the July 2025 issue of Chinquapin 31(2), Alan Weakley presents overwhelming evidence that Hydrocotyle bonariensis was introduced in the last few hundred years, likely in the ballast of sailing ships. The species was first named in 1789 from a South American specimen and was not included in several 19th century regional floras or Mohr's 1913 Flora of Alabama. Small's 1913 Flora of the Southeastern U.S. lists the species as occurring in "waste ground and on ballast." It is now widespread in both natural and disturbed, sandy habitats of the South Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plain maritime zone.
- Habitat
- Dunes and interdune swales, disturbed sandy areas. Rare overall in the outer Coastal Plain maritime zone but locally common on dunes in Virginia Beach City and Northampton County, where it reaches its northern range limit.
- Native Status
- Native
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