Floating Pennywort - Hydrocotyle ranunculoides

A mainly aquatic plant with broadly circular leaves. It has horizontal stems that form roots at the nodes and basal leaves that develop directly from these stems. It is about 4 to12 inches tall.

Still and slow moving water.

Peak time is summer and autumn.

This perennial plant is an introduction from North America, it is thought to have found its way into our waterways from emptied aquarium contents.

The BSBI distribution maps show it was unrecorded in the British Isles before 1986 but has swiftly spread into most of England.

It can become troublesome in those parts of Leicestershire and Rutland where it is present, but, being a recent colonist it was not recorded in the 1979 Flora survey of Leicestershire.