Leptinella squalida 'Platt's Black' is a selected cultivar of the New Zealand type species with distinctive reddish-black tones to the foliage. It forms a beautiful ground-cover in a moist shady location, slowly spreading by its rhizomes to form a low soft mat. It has small whitish-yellow flowers which give rise to its common name of Brass Buttons but it is for its soft-textured foliage that it is grown.

Leptinella squalida 'Platt's Black' prefers a moist soil and is therefore ideally grown in semi-shade and is an ideal plant around water features or under the canopy of woodland trees and shrubs. An easy plant to grow it makes an ideal companion plant to Soleirolia soleirolii - and its cultivars - and the two contrasting types of foliage work well together. Likewise, in warm locations, Leptinella squalida can also be planted with cultivars of the Spikemoss, Selagnella kraussiana which are a little more tender.