Asiatic Pennywort Identification Guide for North Florida Lawns
This Asiatic Pennywort Identification Guide will help North Florida homeowners recognize Asiatic pennywort, understand where it commonly grows, and identify characteristics that help distinguish it from similar broadleaf weeds.
Asiatic pennywort (Centella asiatica) is a low-growing broadleaf plant that can spread through lawns and other moist areas. Its rounded to kidney-shaped leaves, shallow notch where the leaf stalk attaches, and creeping growth habit provide useful identification clues.
Asiatic pennywort can sometimes resemble dollarweed at first glance. Looking closely at the leaf shape, where the stalk attaches, how the plant spreads, and the conditions around it can help distinguish between the two.
Small Weed. Useful Clues.
What Does Asiatic Pennywort Look Like?
Asiatic pennywort produces rounded to kidney-shaped leaves with gently scalloped edges. The leaves grow along creeping stems that can spread through turf and form low patches close to the ground.
One of the most useful clues is where the leaf stalk attaches. On Asiatic pennywort, the stalk attaches at a notch along the edge of the leaf rather than near the center of the underside. This difference can help distinguish Asiatic pennywort from dollarweed.
What Might Asiatic Pennywort Be Telling You?
Asiatic pennywort doesn’t automatically mean something is wrong with the lawn. However, it commonly grows in moist areas and places where turf is thin or less competitive, making the surrounding conditions useful clues.
Look at the plant together with the surrounding lawn. Its location, density, soil moisture, drainage, shade or sunlight, and turf condition can help explain why it is growing there.
Useful things to notice include:
• Areas that remain moist for extended periods
• Thin or open areas in the turf
• Shaded or partially shaded locations
• Whether plants are scattered or spreading into patches
Bug Cops provides Lawn and Ornamental Care Services throughout Clay and Putnam Counties, with programs built around the conditions we encounter in our local lawns and landscapes.
Where Should You Look?
Asiatic pennywort may appear in lawns, landscape beds, moist areas, and other places where low-growing plants have room to spread.
Look closely where turf is thin, soil remains moist, or creeping growth is spreading between grass blades.
Don’t judge the lawn from the weed alone. Compare where Asiatic pennywort is growing with nearby turf, soil moisture, drainage, sunlight, and other conditions across the property.
Identification Note: Check the Leaf Stalk Attachment. Asiatic pennywort and dollarweed can look similar because both have rounded leaves. On Asiatic pennywort, the leaf stalk attaches at a notch along the edge of the leaf. On dollarweed, the stalk attaches near the center of the underside. Checking this attachment point is one of the most useful ways to tell them apart.
Not sure this is Asiatic pennywort? Compare it with other common broadleaf weeds in our Broadleaf Weed Identification Guide. For additional university-based information about identifying and managing weeds in Florida lawns, visit the UF/IFAS Weed Management Guide for Florida Lawns.
Asiatic Pennywort Identification Guide FAQs
Asiatic pennywort commonly grows in moist areas and places where turf is thin or less competitive. It may also appear in landscape beds, shaded or partially shaded locations, and other areas where its creeping stems have room to spread.
Asiatic pennywort has rounded to kidney-shaped green leaves with gently scalloped edges. The plant grows low to the ground and spreads by creeping stems, sometimes forming patches within the turf.
Check where the leaf stalk attaches. On Asiatic pennywort, the stalk attaches at a notch along the edge of the leaf. On dollarweed, the stalk attaches near the center of the underside. This difference is one of the most useful clues for telling the two plants apart.
Not necessarily. Asiatic pennywort can grow in moist conditions, but its presence alone does not identify the cause. Soil moisture, drainage, sunlight, turf density, and other site conditions should all be considered.
Yes. Asiatic pennywort is one of the common broadleaf weeds covered by our Lawn and Ornamental Care program. Before recommending an approach, we look at the weed and surrounding lawn conditions.
Not Sure What’s Growing in Your Lawn?
Weeds can look similar, especially when they’re young or growing down within the turf. Take a clear photo of the entire plant, along with close-ups of the leaves, stems, flowers, or seed structures if present, and send it to Bug Cops. We’ll help you narrow down what you’re seeing.
Protecting & Serving Clay and Putnam Counties Since 1993
Asiatic pennywort and other broadleaf weeds may keep appearing in your lawn. When that happens, Bug Cops can inspect the turf and look at conditions that may be contributing to weed pressure. We can then recommend the appropriate next step.