Dollarweed (Hydrocotyle umbellata)

Also known as: pennywort, manyflower marshpennywort, water pennywort

⚠️ Safety note: ONLY harvest from clean, pesticide-free, fertilizer-free areas — dollarweed thrives in lawns and ditches that are commonly sprayed with herbicides and fertilizers. Never harvest from roadsides (vehicle runoff) or where pets relieve themselves. Wash leaves thoroughly.

Quick Facts

• Edible parts: Young tender leaves and the small white flowers.
• Part: greens
• Season: Year-round in Florida; tenderest new growth comes in spring and summer.
• Type: herb
• Where in Florida: Statewide, in wet lawns, ditches, pond margins, swamps, and wet disturbed ground.

How to Recognize It

Round, coin-shaped leaves about the size of a silver dollar, with the stem attached to the center of the leaf like a tiny umbrella; leaves are slightly scalloped and often glossy. Low creeping plant that forms mats in wet lawns, ditches, and pond edges, with clusters of tiny white flowers on short stalks.

How to Eat It

Eat young leaves raw in salads as a parsley substitute, or cook as a potherb; leaves are less bitter than the stems. Pick the young, tender leaves and avoid tough, mature ones. Wash thoroughly before eating.

Extremely abundant and fast-spreading; pinching young leaves has no impact. Leave the creeping runners intact so patches recover.

UF/IFAS lists dollarweed as a non-toxic native Florida weed in the parsley family — and Florida is home to seven Hydrocotyle species, five of them native, so the round umbrella-leaf shape is the field mark to learn.

🌱 Fun fact: Dollarweed is a Florida native wetland plant that simply colonized lawns because overwatered turf mimics its natural swampy habitat — heavy dollarweed patches are really a sign of over-irrigation.

← Browse all edible native plants

🌿 Keep exploring

More Florida natives worth meeting:

• Peppergrass (Lepidium virginicum)
• Spanish needles (Bidens alba)
• Spiderwort (Tradescantia ohiensis)