Round-leaved Plants
What are they?
A number of small plants, found mostly - though not entirely - in wetlands are very similar in their leaves, though dissimilar in their flowers and certain other features. These plants have distinctive leaves that are rounded (often with toothed margins) and with the stalk attached to the centre of the leaf, rather than being attached at one edge. Most species should be arrived at on their full species pages via the flower picture keys, but this page is also offered as a way to compare and contrast these species to avoid a misidentification and includes a couple of uncommon or rare species that might be found without flowers.
Where are they found?
These are mostly plants of wetlands, though Navelwort is most likely to be found growing on damp walls.
Identification
These plants are grouped together because of the similarity of their leaves. But the leaves do differ subtly so checking the edge of the leaf for teeth or notches is useful. Check also for the presence or absence of hairs and whether the leaves are fleshy, while flowering plants will show clear differences in their flowers.
Marsh Pennywort Hydrocotyle vulgaris
Native. A plant of permanently wet fens and bogs and beside permanent water bodies. Flowers June to July. A small, trailing or creeping plant that is often well hidden beneath taller vegetation. Leaves 1-3cm across, fleshy. Flowers tiny, about 3mm across, appearing on short spikes with 1-3 whorls of flowers and usually hidden beneath the leaves.
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Floating Pennywort Hydrocotyle ranunculoides
Introduced from North America as an aquatic plant for garden ponds. Rapidly takes over small ponds, resulting in the pond-owners removing it and dumping it into natural waterways, where it has the potential to do great harm to a balanced ecosystem. Has appeared over time in a handful of locations but is typically removed by Environment Agency staff as soon as possible. Flowers June to July. Stems may be free-floating on open water and grow very rapidly, but typically do not flower. Stems on marginal mud root at the nodes and are typically the stems that produce flowers. Leaves can be larger than those of our native species, growing to around 8cm across.
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Opposite-leaved Golden-saxifrage Chrysosplenium oppositifolium
Native. Strangely local in East Anglia but can be common where it occurs on wet banks, seepages and streamsides in shady places in the upper reaches of Norfolk's main rivers and in southeast Suffolk, southward into Essex. Flowers April to July. Forms creeping mats of low vegetation with the tiny yellow flowers appearing amongst yellow, leaf-like bracts. Leaves slightly succulent, arranged in opposite pairs on the stems and with finely tipped teeth along their edges.
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Alternate-leaved Golden-saxifrage Chrysosplenium alternifolium
Native. Local and very uncommon on wet banks, seepages and streamsides in shady places in the upper reaches of Norfolk's main rivers and in southeast Suffolk, southward into Essex. Flowers April to July. Forms creeping mats of low vegetation with the tiny yellow flowers appearing amongst yellow, leaf-like bracts. Leaves slightly succulent, arranged alternately on the stems and with broadly squared lobes that resemble a pie crust.
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Cornish Moneywort Sibthorpia europaea
Native in SW Britain but only an introduction as a garden curiosity in East Anglia. Once recorded in Suffolk around 1910 but not recorded since. Flowers July to October. Forms creeping mats, favouring damp, deeply shady places. Flowers tiny, 1.5-2.5mm across with five petals, dull cream or slightly pinkish tinged. The only species on this page with non-succulent, lightly hairy leaves but otherwise rather resembles Alternate-leaved Golden-saxifrage and would favour similar habitats.
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Common Water-crowfoot Ranunculus aquatilis
Native. Scattered throughout the region in ponds and ditches on usually chalk-influenced, still or slow-moving waterways. Despite the name, not particularly common. Flowers mostly late May to August. Floating leaves broadly three- or five-lobed, the lobes cut about half way into the leaf and only narrowly diverging at the leaf base; submerged leaves with stiff and strongly divergent segments. Petals rather broad and with circular nectar pit. Sepals not reflexed, carpels and fruits downy. This plant differs from the others on this page in having leaves that are not fully rounded and joined to the stalk at the centre, but instead have leaf lobes that circle around to meet each other, leaving just a slit into the centre on one side. However, the leaves can look very similar to the other species from a distance.
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Common Navelwort Umbilicus rupestris
A native of the west and southwest of the UK on wetter, acid rocks. In East Anglia, a rare garden escape and known for some time from a small handful of places where it persists on shady old walls and banks. Flowers June to August, in upright spikes. Leaves succulent and in a basal cluster, from which the flower spikes arise.
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