365 Urban Species. #209: Purslane

[urbpan]

Photos by cottonmanifesto

Urban species #209: Purslane Portulaca oleracea

If you can't beat 'em, eat 'em. That could be the motto for those who find purslane taking over their garden. This succulent, subtropical weed is enjoyable raw or cooked, and has high nutritional value. It appears toward the end of summer, when other wild greens have become bitter. In the city it is an adventurous colonizer of sidewalk cracks and crevices along roads and paths. It has a distinctive, crabgrass-like growth habit, and thick paddle-shaped leaves. When mature, it produces small yellow flowers, but this observer finds these to be rare. (One source claims that the flowers "open only on sunny mornings." Perhaps I wake too late?) The plant is pollinated by the wind, therefore needing no particular animal partner to develop fruit. Purslane seed production is profuse, and the tiny seeds, blown on the wind or cast adrift in the stormflow of the gutter, find purchase in the most meager soil. Though the plant is native to subtropical Eurasia and North Africa, it is now found in cities and suburbs around the world.



(Also, knightchik took some pictures of her lawn's purslane, in flower: http://knightchik.livejournal.com/1783613.html)

Comments

[almeda.livejournal.com]

And I've seen some cultivar variant of it for sale in Mexican greengrocers, here in Chicago. Which struck me as as-strange of an alien concept as the first time I saw bundled rhubarb stems in the produce aisle; there were insane amounts of wild rhubarb in the empty lots near my house, growing up.

[zipotle.livejournal.com]

Well, I couldn't find any flowers when I went to go look. I took the pic this morning.
Plants are weird.

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

Gotta try again early tomorrow, I guess.

[sin-agua.livejournal.com]

(http://www.flickr.com/photos/72582722@N00/199943058/)

[perigee.livejournal.com]

Around here (Baltimore, MD), it appears at the Farmer's Market in the beginning of summer, but I've noted it as groundcover/weeds certainly as late as last week, so I imagine it must be some agricultural practice or something.

[bunrab.livejournal.com]

Isn't the other portulaca, the one they call moss rose, not only non-edible but mildly poisonous? I like seeing it, though, because its flowers are all different colors.

[karma-apple.livejournal.com]

Sorry to make an unrelated reply, but I finally got around to uploading a photo of the little freshwater leeches we've got at work! Enjoy! They're actually kind of cute, in a perverse sort of way (http://people.unt.edu/krt0015/Leech_sm.jpg)

[cottonmanifesto.livejournal.com]

Purslane flowers:

[zipotle.livejournal.com]

I finally got some pics of the flowers.

http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?action=download&ufid=0DE50FB903662F1E&rcpt=knightchik@livejournal.com

http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?action=download&ufid=731499E56C4FC316&rcpt=knightchik@livejournal.com