pennywort
(ˈpɛnɪwɜːt)
[f. penny + wort.]
Name for several plants with rounded leaves.
1. (Distinctively wall pennywort.) Cotyledon Umbilicus (family Crassulaceæ), a common plant in the west of England and in Wales, having peltate leaves of a rounded concave form, and growing in the crevices of rocks and walls; Navelwort.
| c 1400 Lanfranc's Cirurg. 55 Putte to þis medicyn þe ius of sum cold erbe: as morel, penywort, virge pastoris. c 1450 Alphita (Anecd. Oxon.) 41 Cimbalaria,..umbilicus ueneris idem. angl. penigres uel penywyt. 1578 Lyte Dodoens i. xxv. 37. 1579 Langham Gard. Health (1633) 474 Wall Peniwort is good against all inflammations and hot tumors, S. Antonies fire, and kibed heeles being applied. 1756 Watson in Phil. Trans. XLIX. 832 Wall Penny-wort, Kidney-wort; Leicestriensibus Navel-wort. 1858 Lewes Sea-side Stud. 189 From the crevices peep the stone-crop, the leaves of the foxglove, pennywort, and..other wall loving plants. |
2. (marsh pennywort or water pennywort.) Hydrocotyle vulgaris, a small umbelliferous herb with rounded peltate leaves, growing in marshy places. Also extended to other species.
| 1578 Lyte Dodoens i. xxv. 37 Bycause of a certayne similitude..that it hath with Pennywurte of the wall, we do call [it] water Pennywurte. 1597 Gerarde Herbal ii. cxliii. 424 Water Pennywoort is called..in English, Sheepes killing Pennygrasse, Penny rot. 1866 Treas. Bot. 606 H[ydrocotyle] vulgaris, common Pennywort, is one of the few British plants which have peltate leaves..it possesses no noxious properties, and sheep moreover refuse to eat it. |
† 3. (mountain pennywort.) Saxifraga cuneifolia (Dr. Stapf.). Obs.
| 1578 Lyte Dodoens i. xxv. 37–8 Thicke Pennywurte... Mountayne or Syngreene Pennywurte, is a rare plante, it groweth in some places of the Alpes and other mountaynes beyond the Sea. |
4. Obolaria virginica (family Gentianaceæ), a small North American herb with roundish upper leaves.