''Dichondra repens'' is a small, prostrate, herbaceous plant native to

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

and many parts of

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. It is occasionally known as kidney weed in

and as Mercury Bay weed in

. Most commonly called dichondra in Australia. The plant often occurs in forest, woodland, and grassland

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

types. It can also be found in

lawn A lawn is an area of soil-covered land planted with grasses and other durable plants such as clover which are maintained at a short height with a lawnmower (or sometimes grazing animals) and used for aesthetic and recreational purposes. L ...

s, where it may be deliberately planted or come up as a

weed A weed is a plant considered undesirable in a particular situation, "a plant in the wrong place", or a plant growing where it is not wanted.Harlan, J. R., & deWet, J. M. (1965). Some thoughts about weeds. ''Economic botany'', ''19''(1), 16-24. ...

. In

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

as well as parts of

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

it has escaped gardens and

naturalised Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-citizen of a country may acquire citizenship or nationality of that country. It may be done automatically by a statute, i.e., without any effort on the part of the i ...

in some habitats.

Taxonomy

''Dichondra repens'' was originally described by German naturalists

Johann Reinhold Forster Johann Reinhold Forster (22 October 1729 – 9 December 1798) was a German Continental Reformed church, Reformed (Calvinist) pastor and natural history, naturalist of partially Scottish descent who made contributions to the early ornithology of ...

and

Georg Forster Johann George Adam Forster, also known as Georg Forster (, 27 November 1754 – 10 January 1794), was a German naturalist, ethnologist, travel writer, journalist and revolutionary. At an early age, he accompanied his father, Johann Reinhold F ...

, its specific epithet the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

adjective ''repens'', meaning "creeping". The

lectotype In biology, a type is a particular specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally attached. In other words, a type is an example that serves to anchor or centralizes the ...

was collected by them in New Zealand and is in the Forster collection at Göttingen. In Convolvulaceae, the Morning Glory Family.

Description

The plant is a perennial herb that has a creeping habit, with roots forming at the nodes. The leaves are kidney-shaped to circular and measure 0.5 to 2.5 cm (0.2–1 in) long. The base of the leaf is heart-shaped (cordate) and its apex emarginated or rounded. The upper and undersurface of the leaf are covered in fine hair. The tiny yellowish-green flowers can appear at any time of the year, more profusely from September to February and most so in November. The fruit is a hairy, two-lobed capsule.

Distribution and habitat

''Dichondra repens'' occurs in South Africa. It is found in all mainland Australian states and Tasmania. Within New South Wales it is widespread across eastern and central parts of the state. It grows on clay or clay-based soils that are medium to high in nutrients in flat places in forested areas. Associated species in New South Wales are river peppermint (''

Eucalyptus elata ''Eucalyptus elata'', commonly known as the river peppermint or river white gum, is a species of medium to tall tree that is endemic to eastern Australia. It has rough, compacted bark on the lower trunk, smooth bark above, lance-shaped to curved ...

''), thin-leaved stringybark ('' E. eugenioides''), woollybutt ('' E. longifolia'') and snow-in-summer (''

Melaleuca linariifolia ''Melaleuca linariifolia'' is a plant in the myrtle family Myrtaceae, and is endemic to eastern Australia. It is commonly known as snow-in-summer, narrow-leaved paperbark, flax-leaved paperbark and in the language of the Gadigal people as ''budj ...

'').

Ecology

The native

Pacific black duck The Pacific black duck (''Anas superciliosa''), commonly known as the PBD, is a dabbling duck found in much of Indonesia, New Guinea, Australia, New Zealand, and many islands in the southwestern Pacific, reaching to the Caroline Islands in the no ...

(''Anas superciliosa'') eats the seeds.

Cultivation

This species is cultivated as an

ornamental plant Ornamental plants or garden plants are plants that are primarily grown for their beauty but also for qualities such as scent or how they shape physical space. Many flowering plants and garden varieties tend to be specially bred cultivars that i ...

, and can be used as a

substitute or

groundcover Groundcover or ground cover is any plant that grows over an area of ground. Groundcover provides protection of the topsoil from erosion and drought. In an ecosystem, the ground cover forms the layer of vegetation below the shrub layer known as t ...

garden A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the cultivation, display, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The single feature identifying even the wildest wild garden is ''control''. The garden can incorporate both ...

s. It comes in shades of green through to grey.

References

External links

New Zealand Plant Conservation Network: ''Dichondra repens''.
{{Taxonbar, from=Q859897 Convolvulaceae Flora of New South Wales Flora of Queensland Flora of South Australia Flora of Tasmania Flora of Victoria (Australia) Flora of Western Australia Flora of New Zealand Garden plants of Australia Groundcovers