About
Dollarweed (Hydrocotyle bonariensis) is a creeping perennial with round, peltate leaves often described as silver-dollar sized, common in moist lawns, pond margins, and brackish-influenced ground along warm coasts from the United States through the Caribbean and parts of South America. It is a salad green and survival forage in some traditions—mild when young, mucilaginous when older—and an indicator plant that laughs at over-irrigation. In design terms it is either a living mulch in wet polycultures or a symptom of drainage fiction; the plant does not care which story you tell. ☀️💧 Sun and Water Requirements: Full sun to partial shade. Thrives in consistently moist to wet soils and tolerates brief inundation; not a desert ground cover. Brackish exposure is tolerated on some sites—coastal swales are its résumé. Reduce irrigation frequency if you want it less enthusiastic in turf. ✂️ Propagation: Stem fragments with nodes root freely in wet media—accidental propagation is the default mode. Division of mats in cool, moist weather transplants cleanly into pond edges or rain gardens. 🌾 Harvest / Best Use Timing: Gather young leaves before flowering for the best texture in salads or cooked greens. In managed wetlands, thin mats seasonally to maintain open water for amphibians if biodiversity is the goal.
Permaculture Functions
- Edible: Young leaves are mild and usable as a pot herb where identification is certain.
- Aquatic: Suits pond shelves, swales, and rain-garden pools that stay intermittently wet.
- Ground Cover: Dense mats exclude some weeds and reduce splash erosion on saturated soils.
- Wildlife Attractor: Cover and flowers support small invertebrates at the water's edge.
Practitioner Notes
- If dollarweed "took over" your grass, your soil moisture calendar is writing fan fiction—fix water before you declare war.
- Leaves are round and peltate—if yours are not, you are arguing with a different Hydrocotyle.
- Salt spray tolerance varies by ecotype; coastal plants sneer at inland drama.
- It is edible, not miraculous—texture people exist; respect their boundaries.
Companion Planting
- Pickerelweed — emergent aquatics share wet margins without identical rooting depth
- Cattail — taller structure behind low Hydrocotyle mats along pond edges
- Duck Potato — edible wetland starches in deeper water behind the creeping fringe
- Do not harvest from chemically treated lawns or uncertain water quality—bioaccumulation and dog-walking residues are not gourmet
Pest Pressure