Portulaca oleracea

Portulaca oleracea (common purslane, also known as little hogweed, or pursley) is a succulent plant in the family Portulacaceae. All parts of the plant are edible raw or cooked.

Description

Purslane grows from a taproot with fibrous secondary roots. The plant may reach 40 centimetres (16 inches) in height. It has smooth, reddish, mostly prostrate stems, and the leaves, which may be alternate or opposite, are clustered at stem joints and ends. The yellow flowers have five regular parts and are up to 6 millimetres (1⁄4 inch) wide. Depending upon rainfall, the flowers appear at any time during the year. The flowers open singly at the center of the leaf cluster for only a few hours on sunny mornings. The tiny seeds are formed in a pod that opens when the seeds mature.

The fruits are many-seeded capsules. The seed set is considerable; large plants have been reported to produce up to 240,000 seeds. The seeds germinate optimally at a temperature above 25 °C; they are light germinators, with even a soil cover of 5 mm having a negative effect on germination.