urbpan | 365 Urban Species. #209: Purslane

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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.