Comprehensive Description
provided by North American Flora
Hydrocotyle pusilla A. Rich. Ann. Gen. Sci. Phys. 4: 167. 1820 Not H. pusilla R. Br. 1820.
Hydrocotyle brevipes DC. Prodr. 4: 63, ex descr. 1830.
Hydrocotyle coslaricensis Rose; Rose & Standley, Jour. Wash. Acad. 17: 195. 1927.
Stems filiform; leaves thin, orbicular-peltate, excluding the petiole 3-20 mm. long, 4-16 mm. broad, shallowly 5-8-lobed, the lobes crenate, glabrous to sparsely villous above, glabrous beneath; petioles slender, 5-35 mm. long, glabrous to densely retrorsevillous; inflorescence a simple umbel, the peduncles about equaling the leaves, 5-15 mm. long, glabrous to retrorsevillous; involucre of a few thin lanceolate, acute bracts; umbels 2-6-flowered, the flowers sessile to subsessile; stylopodium depressed-conic; fruit ovoid in general outline, about 0.5 mm. long, about 1 mm. broad, sparingly hirsute to glabrous, the dorsal surface rounded, the ribs obsolete, the commissural face plane; oil-bearing cells absent; seed oblong-ovate in cross section.
Type locality: "Dans les lieux arides des environs de Montevideo," Uruguay, Commerson. Distribution: Haiti. Jamaica, and Puerto Rico; Mexico to Panama, extending through South America to Brazil and Uruguay; 2500-7800 feet. (Ekman H1249, Pitlier 10.355.)
- bibliographic citation
- Albert Charles Smith, Mildred Esther Mathias, Lincoln Constance, Harold William Rickett. 1944-1945. UMBELLALES and CORNALES. North American flora. vol 28B. New York Botanical Garden, New York, NY
