Purslane

Portulacaceae

LIFE FORM: Summer annual

NATIVITY: Southern Asia

VEGETATIVE CHARACTERISTICS:

A prostrate, mat-forming plant that forms clumps up to a foot or more in diameter; thick, succulent leaves are wedge-shaped with rounded tips; stems are red or green and densely branched.

FLOWERS:

Flowers have short yellow petals and open when sunny; bloom from July through September.

FRUIT/DISPERSAL AGENTS:

Seeds germinate from May through August; fragmented stem segments can develop adventitious roots.

ECOLOGICAL PREFERENCE:

Grows best in nutrient-rich sandy soils, but is also found in dry, compacted soil; needs high light and warm temperatures to do well. Prefers neglected residential and commercial; minimally maintained public parks and open space; vacant lots and rubble dump sites; small-scale pavement openings (tree pits) and cracks.

ENVIRONMENTAL FUNCTION:

Disturbance-adapted colonizer.

CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE:

The mucilaginous leaves and stems are edible and used to thicken soups and stews; used medicinally to reduce inflammation; a source of omega-3 fatty acids for vegetarians. Included by Greek physician Pedanius Dioscorides in his five volume herbal, De Materia Medica, which was written in the first century AD and remained in active use into the 1600s.