Hydrocotyle tripartita
Hydrocotyle tripartita
Also known asHydrocotyle Japan · Japanese pennywort (trade) · Hydrocotyle sp. 'Japan'
Water parameters
Light and nutrients
Substrate type: rooted. Propagation: runners.
Substrate compatibility
| Substrate | pH effect | Nutrient load |
|---|---|---|
| Aquasoil (ADA Amazonia) | lowers pH | very high |
| Dirted tank (mineralized topsoil) (DIY soil substrate) | slightly acidic | very high |
| Mineralized clay substrate (Seachem Fluorite) | neutral / inert | moderate |
| Inert sand (Pool filter sand) | neutral / inert | none |
| Inert gravel (Aquarium gravel) | neutral / inert | none |
With fish
Origin and habitat
A small creeping herb of the family Araliaceae (the pennyworts, formerly placed in Apiaceae), Hydrocotyle tripartita is native to eastern Australia, in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria, and to New Zealand, growing in wet meadows, stream margins and shallow water. Its leaves are small and clover-like, each split into three rounded lobes, on thin creeping stems, giving a delicate carpeting cover with a distinctive clover texture quite unlike the grassy Eleocharis or Sagittaria. The hobby name 'Japan' or 'sp. Japan' is doubly misleading: the plant is neither Japanese nor Southeast Asian but Australasian, and the similar-looking H. sibthorpioides is the one with the truly Asian, Japan-including range. The larger-leaved H. verticillata and H. leucocephala are separate species with rounder, more upright growth.
Care notes
A versatile plant that carpets the foreground, climbs hardscape and cascades over rock and wood. Moderate to high light keeps it tightest and most compact, while low light makes it stretch and turn leggy. CO2 is not essential but strongly helps a true carpet; without it the plant tends to climb and grow tall rather than hug the substrate. It feeds from both roots and the water column, so a nutrient-rich substrate helps but is not the whole story. Plant small portions pressed into the substrate, and the creeping stems root at every node; under good light, CO2 and nutrients a carpet closes in four to six weeks. Trim it often to keep it low and dense, since left alone the stems pile up and the shaded lower layers die off. The climbing habit will take it up driftwood and rocks within reach, a draped effect that can be a feature or a nuisance. Propagate from any fragment with a node. It is an easy-to-moderate carpet with a texture all its own. It is an ornamental, not a crop, so it is unsuited to media-bed aquaponics or hydroponics.