Portulaca Species, Pigweed, Purslane, Little Hogweed, Wild Portulaca

Most of the photos posted under this name are garden cultivars of P. umbraticola. There is nothing "anonymous" about them. Also they are ...Read Moretechnically not true hybrids in the sense that they resulted from the crossing of different species. Only one species with a broad natural distribution was ever involved. They are produced by way of intra-varietal hybridization and from then on are continued vegetatively from cuttings. In this sense they are essentially cultivars of a species.

The correct naming of the cultivar is prescribed by the Rules and Recommendations of the International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants. In this case the correct name is Portulaca umbraticola subsp. umbraticola 'Cultivar Name' or as Portulaca umbraticola subsp. umbraticola Group Name. The latter may be placed in brackets and followed by the cultivar name enclosed in single quotes.

The author Urs Eggli places these plants correctly as cultivars of P. umbraticola subsp. umbraticola in the book "Illustrated Handbook of Succulent Plants: Dicotyledons" (2001).

Eggli states of P. umbraticola : "This species is unique by virtue of the membranous wing ('corona') surrounding the basis of the capsule" and further writes: "A horticultural selection is available as a cultivar 'Wildfire Mixed'."

A paper which talks about the development of this first Portulaca umbraticola series is Matthews, J.F., D.W. Ketron and S.F. Zane.1992. "Portulaca umbraticola Kunth.(Portulacaceae) in the United States." Castanea 57: 202-208.

Most horticulturalists today presume correctly that the 'Wildfire' series was bred from plants originating in South America (as the flowers of P. umbraticola subsp. umbraticola from South America are much larger, with richer coloring and much greater colour diversity). It is reasonable to presume that the progenitors of the 'Wildfire' series were South American plants of this subspecies that were being grown by native plant enthusiasts in the US. It is possible that the plants were grown originally as more showy and longer-lived "substitutes" to the native subspecies, which are comparatively short-lived plants with rather weak and spindly stems and small flowers.

There are two subspecies that are native to the United States.

P. umbraticola subsp. coronata is found on granite and sandstone rock outcrops in South Carolina and Georgia and has small, pure yellow flowers.

P. umbraticola subsp. lanceolata grows on rock outcrops and sand in S USA, W of the Mississippi, and has small yellow flowers tipped with coppery red. Both of the subspecies native to the USA are short-lived annuals with small flowers and have little colour variation in the petals. It seems unlikely that they were ever used to breed the original 'Wildfire' series.

The 'Wildfire' series has been continued to this day and goes under other names. The lineage is essentially still the same as the original series, although some plant breeders claim to have created new lines with greater flower abundance or larger flowers or improved colour tones. Some also claim that their plants are longer lived. For the most part, they are still basically the same plants as the original 'Wildfire' series. At least this is the conclusion I have always reached whenever I have grown them side by side in the garden.

Some of the newer cultivar names for Portulaca umbraticola cultivars include 'Sun Jewels', 'Hot Spots', 'Pazzazz', 'Yubi', 'Summer Joy', and 'Toucan', and many, many others. They are sold under different names throughout the world, but are all essentially the same cultivars in my opinion.

As most of these plants are cutting-grown, the plants are best regarded as individual cultivars, rather than as true strains. The word "strain" implies that the plants have been grown as a batch from seed. The original 'Wildfire' Series were recessive when grown from seed. After one or two generations fewer viable seeds are produced as sterility returns. There is also a tendency for seedlings to revert to a plain yellow flower form, rather than repeat the parental type reliably. The only way to produce a new batch from seed is to start from scratch and hand cross the original wild varieties. This will produce a new batch of F1 intra-varietal cultivars.

The problem of recessive genes means that the chances of extending a lineage through further breeding become very limited. Only chance sports will occasionally be found and these can then be continued by cuttings. Some of the wholesale nurseries claim to be using "tissue culture" to propagate their plants, but I suspect they could be using this term loosely.

There are a couple of "strains" that do seem to be trending towards new lineages, but it is difficult to know how much selective breeding was actually involved in their development. It is also difficult to predict if these lineages can ever be expanded in future. As the so-called "strains" mostly consist of individuals rather than a batch showing a range of variations, this suggests that they are actually just "sports" (arrived at by chance) and they have then been propagated vegetatively.

One of these new "strains" focuses on broken flower color [the 'Duet' series]. Another has focused on flowers with deformed petaloid stamens that make the flower look semi-double [the 'Fairytail' series].

An interesting side point is that the original series was not called 'Wildfire'. It was called 'Wildfire Mixed' because the developers found that the colours were unstable whenever plants were grown from seed. So the 'Wildfire' name was dropped in favour of 'Wildfire Mixed'. The original plan had been to market this series as packeted seed rather than as live plants.

Incidentally, the original progenitors of the 'Wildfire Mixed' series, the Pan American Seed Company, has in more recent times moved on to the "Toucan" range under their "Hot Summer Survivors" banner. I note that they are selling seed of selected colours. You can choose from 'Mixed', 'Yellow', 'Fushia', and 'Scarlet'.

I wonder if this means they have finally resolved the problem of unstable flower colour that had plagued the original 'Wildfire' series? I would be interested to hear from anyone who has experience with growing this seed. I would be keen to know if they have reproduced reliably according to the designated flower colours.

Oddly (and frustratingly) the company are still using the incorrect name "Portulaca oleracea", even though the name for this purslane was corrected in "Sunset Garden Books" (America's leading horticultural journal) some 15 years ago. Today they should be called by their true species name, Portulaca umbraticola.

Yes this entry is THE edible wild purslane!
There are several pictures under this entry that are DEFINITELY NOT P. oleraceae!
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The pictures with the vivid, large colored flowers AND narrow leaves are the annual "Moss Rose" or "Rose Moss", P. grandiflora originally from South America. They have been available to gardeners since well towards the beginning of the last century if not before.

The pictures with large yellow flowers or those of multiple colors with leaves that are very similar to P. oleraceae most likely are P. umbraticola "Wildfire Hybrids" often sold as P. oleraceae or P. grandiflora.

I know of three types of P. oleraceae grown for food. It is possible that there are other varieties or subspecies (P. oleraceae sativa) that are involved with these types.

"WILD PURSLANE" which is prostrate in some conditions and more upright in others (with ample water and pinching or partial harvesting of leaves and stems). This type is possibly originally from India but has been established in many countries in the last few hundreds to thousands of years and used as an herb for at least that long! There are most likely different forms that may vary in one way or another even as a wild type given its very widespread distribution.

"RED GRUNER" is a vigorous upright form with thick reddish stems and large rounded leaves. The flower is also larger than the wild type.

"GOLDEN PURSLANE" is also upright with yellowish green to light green leaves. Not as vigorous as the other type.

Another "Purslane" is "MINERS LETTUCE" Claytonia lanceolata with its initial strap-like leaves and then the "parasol" leaf-like structure with the spikes of tiny white flowers in the center. A very good cool season "weed" to have around!

All three of these P. oleraceae and "Miners Lettuce" re-seed themselves quite readily from tiny black seeds.

The other "purslanes" that come up on this site or other web pages are ornamental plants that may not even be in the same family (Portulacaceae)! For example the large shrubby Elephants Food (Portulacaria...not Portulaca, in the family Didieraceae!) is a succulent that looks like a small leaved Jade plant (Crassula) both of which have gone wild here in San Diego. There is a selection of Portulacaria afra that is PROSTRATE which at first glance... looks like a large Portulaca olereaceae! YES... it can get VERY confusing!

P. olereaceae is one of those plants that is delicious enough to eat as-is when "browsing" through the garden or as others have described in their posts here!

Anyhow...the wild purslane happens to be a plant with the highest level of omega-3 fatty acid of any leafy plant! I am not sure the same level of this fatty acid exists in the garden types... I believe the evaluation I viewed was of the wild type...but I may be wrong. Otherwise flax seed (from Linum usitassisimum) is the highest plant source for this fatty acid.

Go you vegetarians! With the use of whole flax seed or flax seed flour and wild purslane...who needs fish oil?! (recent evidence suggests that fish oil may have cancer causing effect... so what DOES NOT cause cancer?)

Consider yourself lucky if you have this highly nutritious "weed" in your lawn, garden or even in the potted nursery plant you just purchased!!!

There are other EDIBLE LAWN WEEDS. Check out http://www.ppaf.org or http://www.edibleplantproject.org. There is an article at one of these sites for "The Edible Lawn". You would be surprised how many WEEDS are nutritious and valuable herbs. Through all history as humans populate new localities they bring with them many valuable herbs... that is how and why so many WEEDS exist!!! Any books about indigenous populations of people's use of plants will often describe many familiar plants as useful herbs. There is a lot of info like this out there!

I just love this colorful plant. It is about the only plant that will grow well in my sunny flower box that relies on hand watering or ra...Read Morein...very drought tolerant and selfseeds. I have even put the leaves in my salads and they have a nice taste to them, it is very high in vitamins A, B1 and C .
My only complaint is the flowers only stay out half the day and then close up, wish they'd stay out as long as the sun does. They can't tolerate too much water, the ones I have that get overhead irrigation eventually get leggy and rot at the soil base. Grow great in sunny neglected areas of sandy soil and seems to be the area that self seeds. Will not tolerate temperatures below 35.

Portulaca oleracea, Purslane or Glistritha, pronounced ghlee-STREE-thah (hard "th" sound) has been used in Greek cooking for millenia. Tr...Read Morey Googling Purslane + Greek. Pliny advised wearing the plant as an amulet to expel all evil due to its healing properties. My Aunt, born on Crete, called it (and seemingly half of the other yard weeds) Horta. I called it rabbit food. Today I "encourage", allow! it to grow amongst the callas and EEars and get a great salad add-in free.

The purslane from the vendor listed at the top, Territorial Seed, does not sell the wild purslane, but Golden purslane.

once i learned how nutritious this plant is, i stopped weeding it. thus it becomes a living mulch under most of my vegetables, and grows ...Read Moremore upright in the shade to allow easier harvesting. this seems to have no ill effects on tomatoes, peppers, squash, or sweet potatoes. i've frozen it for winter soups, or add it as a thickener in tomato sauces without any added flavor. maam in zone 6, ct.

Portulaca oleracea is one of the richest source of non-fish EPA Essential Fatty acids (Omega 3's) on earth.

The entire pla...Read Morent is edible and can be eaten raw, cooked or pickled and has a mild acid taste & a fatty/mucilaginous quality.

A noxious weed. In my garden I call it the "scourge of summer"!

I consider this weed on the 10 worst weed for me. They loves to appear where there are sun in my yard and anywhere there are a little exp...Read Moreosured soil. Carpetweed is also a co- conspiracy weed that grows along with Weedy Purslane.

What a wonderful suprise it was when I saw for the first time on backyard! It's one of my favorite vegetables ever. They are so delicious...Read More, I mix them with hybrid purslane when I cook. Last year I collected their seeds. They are very easy to grow, actually just throw the seeds to soil, little bit water, then forget it. They continuously grow. Their branches parallel to ground, leaves dark green and small, steams are purple, flowers are small yellow. Evening time flowers close, in the mornings open again. In the tip of the leaves there are few green capsules. the top half drops and many very thinny black seeds drop to ground and grow. If you see them as weed, you better get rid of them before those capsules open. Otherwise, you'll have many more. And wind will spread them easily.
I saw them in Syracuse NY (a city close to Canada border) and in Fort Myers FL. They are good for spring or fall, they can't handle very hot sunny days. They melt if you give too much water or in very rainy climate.
They cross very easily if you grow hybrid purslane. The result is upright purslane, with purple steam and lighter green leaves.
For me, wild purslane is a lot more tastier than hybrid purslane. More sour and intense taste. Eventually they are heirloom!!! It's one of the free foods from garden.
2 recipes:
purslane salad:
the tender tip of purslanes
some olive oil
some vinegar
salt
1 glove crush garlic (optional)
I think this recipe from Bulgaria.

purslane dish:
1 pound purslane
1/4 pound ground beef
1 med onion
2 paste tomato or 1 tablespoon tomato paste
3 sunflower oil or canola oil
2 tablespoon short rice
salt, water

Put chopped ground beef, chopped onion and oil to a pan. When ground beef turns to brown, add chopped purslane, diced tomato or tomato paste, rice, salt, and water. Try to slow cook and add water as much less as possible.
Beside, it's so delicious, it's said also cholestrol reducer. It's said it has very high level omega 3.

I like this tasty little salad plant. It's also great sauted with ground meat and tomatoes. And it is a valuable plant in erosion control...Read More. If it didn't volunteer, I'd probably plant it.

In added support of this plant that many people unfortunately classify as a garden pest, though not among most of the people of this grou...Read Morep, I wanted to leave the following narrative from The Encyclopedia of Edible Plants of North America by Francois Couplan, Ph.D.

"Portulaca oleracea, originally from the tropical and subtropical regions of the Old World, is a common weed in North America. It has been used as a vegetable for over 2,000 years in India and Persia. Purslane is cultivated as a salad plant or potherb in Asia, Europe, and South America.

Leaves and stems are fleshy and slightly acid. They are edible raw, preferably mixed with other greens because of their mucilaginous texture. The plant can be used as a thickener for soups and stews. It is excellent in omelettes and can also be pickled.

Purslane contains vitamins A, B, and C, minerals (much iron), and mucilage. It is emollient, depurative, diuretic, and refrigerant.

The tiny seeds have often been used as food either cooked whole or ground into a meal. They can be gathered by picking the plant before maturity and letting it dry out on a baking sheet for a week or so. The capsules ripen, and the seeds can be extracted by threshing and winnowing.

Other species are eaten in Asia, Australia, Polynesia, and South America."

Fantastic, low maintenance plant. Love how it blooms from 9-5 and always seems to have lots of blooms!

I have the wild kind growing everywhere, and reseeds all over the place. It's one of my worst weeds. It's easy enough to pull, but ther...Read Moree's so much of it every year. I think the seeds blow in from the neighboring pastures and fields.

Wild pursalane has come up all over this town, in flower beds, cracks in sidewalks, and I have yet to hear a positive comment on it....Read More Never saw it before this year (2005)

I "pruned" a couple of leggy stems from this plant at one of the large garden centers, stuck it in the dirt in my garden, and it bloomed ...Read Moreright away and has spread out about 1 ft in all directions.

I have both this hybrid/ornamental variety and the native wildflower version with smaller flowers in my yard.

I have not grown this plant but my sister-in-law has and she lives nearby. We live in a very rainy area but plant them with excellent dra...Read Moreinage and they do great even here. Hers are in concrete urns setting atop some walled stairs in full sun (when we have it).

The wild weed type also goes by the name of 'verdolaga' in the grocery stores.

I love it's large flowers! mine are red, and it is very easy to gather seeds, I wonder if I will be able to grow it from seed.

The plants in these pictures are not the true wild portulaca, they are the cultivated form of Portulaca oleracea. The wild form has smal...Read Moreler, less ornamental flowers(yellow), and spatulate leaves. It also takes a somewhat radiating habit as it sends shoots( quite ornamental) and growing it requires attention as its inumerous seeds dispese and grow everywhere if you don't control it.

I love this little plant but the squirrels love it too. They eat it all up. Very easy to grow. Little to no care. Easy to root, just ...Read Morepluck a piece off and stick it in the dirt. I have a new variety that is just lovely. All Aglow in Florida.

Wonderful plant that does NOT need lots of water. Will grow in places nothing else will grow. Beautiful and will fill out quickly. Can...Read More just pinch off a stem and stick in the ground to root. MUCH prettier and fuller than the thin leaf portulaca. Needs lots of sun to bloom well but will grow in shade. GREAT ground cover or use in a hanging basket. I even grew it out of a hole in a tree!

San Antonio, TX

NOTE: THE FOLLOWING IS A DESCRIPTION OF WILD PURSLANE NOT THE HYBRIDS USED AS GARDEN PLANTS. NEUTRAL RAT...Read MoreING

The name "Portulaca" is a derivative of "portare" (Latin) which means to carry and lac (milk) which refers to the plant's milky sap. Meaning pertaining to kitchen gardens, "oleracea" (Latin) is a reference to its use as a vegetable. It is an herbaceous weed commonly known as purslane in the U.S. It is found growing wild and/or cultivated in much of the world in almost any unshaded area in cold, warm and/or hot climates.

The small, yellow, almost nonsignificant flowers are up to .25 inches in diameter and appear in late spring and continue into mid fall. The flowers are open only part of the day and do not open fully on very cloudy days, like all portulaca. Seeds are formed in a tiny pod the lid of which opens when the seeds are ready and a single plant can produce more than 50,000 seeds.

The reason it is valued above a common weed is its edibility. Early settlers cooked it as a substitute for spinach, used the young leaves and stem tips in salads and ate the seeds. The seeds may be ground and baked into a bread. It has been used as a medicinal plant for a variety of ailments for hundreds of years. It contains a high level of Omega-3 fatty acids and protein (2 to 2.5%) compared to other vegetables. In fact, it is a better nutrient source than spinach.

When giving this plant a neutral rating, I am being kind due to its nutritional value. Otherwise, I would give it a negative rating because I consider it a weed in my flowerbeds. It is easy to pull, but pieces of stem can reroot readily. It keeps coming up in cracks in the street asphalt and has to be dug out with a screwdriver or knife. It can be chemically controlled using a pre-emergence herbicide containing oryzalin or pendimethalin.

HYBRID PURSLNE VARIETIES POSITIVE RATING
These varieties of purslane are a maintstay of my summer plantings. They reseed thmselves every year and provide continuous bright colored blooms. They require little care and are drought tolerant.

I live in West Texas where it is very hot and dry. Purslane seems to thrive here. The birds eat my moss roses down to the numb, but don't...Read More seem to bother the purslane. It blooms it's little heart out until frost.

EXTREMELY easy to root. Break off a stem with a bloom, put it in water to root (takes only about a week). The cutting just keeps right on...Read More blooming. When the cutting roots the bloom is still there so you'll know what color you're planting. Neatest thing I've ever seen. Drought resistant, succulent-type plant. Lots of recipes on the web for cooking these beautiful plants.

This plant has been so prolific, that I've given many cuttings away, and rooted even more for more small gifts. I have one that is in a ...Read Morehanging basket that really likes to show its beauty.
It loves the full sun here in Florida, and covers bare spots very nicely.

I love this plant. So many different colors to choose from. This year however, I'm having problems with my perfectly healthy 10" baskets ...Read Moreof purslane. Almost overnight, ALL of the leaves began turning yellow and falling off.

What a wonderful find for sunny Florida. Purslane blooms during the day and the flowers close up at night. The blooms are brilliant. The ...Read Moreplant requires little care and only occasional watering. It spreads quickly and is excellent as a ground cover or even in a hanging basket.

This is the first plant I tried to grow, even though it was accidental (it started growing in an abandoned vase in my window, and I didnÂ...Read More´t want it to die, like the other plants that tried to grow there spontaneously before). So, even a 14 years old kid with no experience or even taste for gardening can make it grow and bloom abundantly with little effort

Purslane is an excellent plant. The wild form is a formidable pest for farmers in the midwest. When I worked on a small farm in Wisconsin...Read More, purslane covered our beds in between our vegetable crops. However, some have conquered this by raising it as a food crop! The wild and cultivated forms are both edible, with a delightful slimy texture and sour flavor. The wild purslane does not grow the large and colorful flowers of the cultivated variety. Purslane reminds me of the Jade plant.

This is a great plant for hanging baskets, pots, or as ground cover. Purslane loves the heat and is very drought tolerant. This is a pl...Read Moreant that blooms from spring to frost without any maintenance.