Containerized and Courtyard Americanized Purslane Gardens

Summary: Native prostrate pigweed and native, non-native and ornamental purslanes tend to tiptoe through containerized and courtyard Americanized purslane gardens.

purslane flowers, leaves and stems; eastern Bulky Dump Peninsula, southern Sand Island, Midway Atoll, June 2, 2008: Forest and Kim Starr, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Americanized purslane gardens assemble herbaceous purslanes in the Portulaceae family, including ornamental miner's lettuce, moss rose, portulaca and pygmyroot and weedy pink baby's breath, also known as jewels of Opar, and purslane.

Purslane, nicknamed duckweed, garden purslane, little hogweed, low pigweed, pusley and wild portulaca, bears weed status in North America despite inclusion in Massachusetts gardens since 1672. Arizona calls purslane an unwelcome weed, classified by Råsholt-born Swedish botanist Carl Linneaus (May 23, 1707-Jan. 10, 1778) and introduced from northern Africa and southern Europe. Richard Dickinson, in Weeds of North America, University of Chicago Press publication from 2014, describes purslane's shade-intolerant weediness in flower beds, home gardens and row crops.

Stored photosynthates enable purslane, scientifically named Portulaca oleracea (kitchen vegetable-like little door or kitchen vegetable-like milk-carrier) to effectuate rooted, seeding stem fragments and rootless seed production.

Oblong, red, succulent, 0.08- to 0.39-inch- (2- to 10-millimeter-) long, 0.04- to 0.08-inch- (1- to 2-millimeter-) wide embryonic leaves called cotyledons fit onto red, succulent stems.

The cotyledons give way to oval, paired, 0.16- to 1.10-inch- (4- to 28-millimeter-) long, 0.08- to 0.79-inch- (2- to 20-millimeter-) wide leaves growing alternately along stems. In a reversal of the first non-embryonic leaves, purslane's mature foliage hints of alternate arrangements but holds to opposite placements on branched, hairless, red, succulent stems. Its hairless, oval to wedge-shaped, succulent, 0.16- to 1.10-inch (4- to 28-millimeter) lengths and 0.08- to 0.79-inch (2- to 20-millimeter) widths inspire crowded ends of branches.

Healthy leaves dramatically juggle green upper-sides and pale purple undersides through dissolved hormones, photosynthetic reserves of starches and sugars and watered-down nutrients in Americanized purslane gardens.

Introduced into the Hawaiian archipelago, the Old World's leafy edible, purslane, responds to container gardening; white tern feeds chick nesting in containerized purslane, Sand Island, Midway Atoll, April 29, 1999: Forest and Kim Starr, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr

Purslane knows of roots as the mature 0.79- to 3.94-inch- (2- to 10-centimeter-) long taproot and as secondary replacements strengthening an uprooting or substituting for severances.

Secondary rooting from stem nodes, stored reserves and strong taproots let purslane link prostrate growth habits of above-ground shoots into mats 47.24 inches (120 centimeters) across. Short-stalked inflorescences called racemes manage one to three flowers, 0.12 to 0.39 inches (3 to 10 millimeters) across, at the axil unions of leaves and stems. The perfect, regular, stalkless flowers need one pistil, two 0.12- to 0.16-inch- (3- to 4-millimeter-) long sepals, four to six petals and six to 12 stamens.

Inconspicuous yellow petals occur one month after germination and open "only on sunny mornings" when petals opt to drop in January- to September-blooming Americanized purslane gardens.

Few-seeded, globe-shaped, 0.16- to 0.32-inch- (4- to 8-millimeter-) long capsules produce oval to triangular, red-brown to black, shiny seeds seven to 12 days after floral pollination.

Sunlight-sensitive seeds quit germinating below 75.2 degrees Fahrenheit (24 degrees Celsius) and being viable above 5 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 15 degrees Celsius) or above 122 (50). Emerging seeds, 0.02 to 0.04 inches (0.6 to 1 millimeter) across, require 24-hour-long soil temperatures at 86 and 104 degrees Fahrenheit (30 to 40 degrees Celsius). Otherwise, two-day-long temperatures at 50 to 68 degrees Fahrenheit (10 to 20 degrees Celsius) start emergence procedures for the 40-year viable 242,500 seeds released per plant.

Purslane tiptoes through containerized and courtyard Americanized purslane gardens with native pink baby's breath, native prostrate pigweed, green-white-flowering lookalike without fleshy rooting leaves, and ornamental purslanes.

purslane (Portulaca oleracea) seeds: Steve Hurst/ARS Systematic Botany and Mycology Laboratory, Public Domain, via USDA NRCS PLANTS Database

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

purslane flowers, leaves and stems; eastern Bulky Dump Peninsula, southern Sand Island, Midway Atoll, June 2, 2008: Forest and Kim Starr, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Starr_080602-5375_Portulaca_oleracea.jpg

Introduced into the Hawaiian archipelago, the Old World's leafy edible, purslane, responds to container gardening; white tern feeds chick nesting in containerized purslane, Sand Island, Midway Atoll, April 29, 1999: Forest and Kim Starr, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/starr-environmental/24444140141/

purslane seeds: Steve Hurst/ARS Systematic Botany and Mycology Laboratory, Public Domain, via USDA NRCS PLANTS Database @ https://www.plants.usda.gov/java/largeImage?imageID=pool_002_ahp.tif

For further information:

Dickinson, Richard; and Royer, France. 2014. Weeds of North America. Chicago IL; London, England: The University of Chicago Press.

Linnaeus, Carl. 1753. "1. Portulaca oleracea." Species Plantarum, vol. I: 445. Holmiae [Stockholm, Sweden]: Laurentii Salvii [Laurentius Salvius].
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/358464

Modzelevich, Martha. "Portulaca oleracea, Little Hogweed, Purslane, Garden Purslain, Hebrew: רגלת הגינה; Arabic: رجلة." Flowers in Israel.
Available @ http://www.flowersinisrael.com/Portulacaoleracea_page.htm

"Portulaca oleracea L." Tropicos® > Name Search.
Available @ http://www.tropicos.org/Name/26200154

Weakley, Alan S.; Ludwig, J. Christopher; and Townsend, John F. 2012. Flora of Virginia. Edited by Bland Crowder. Fort Worth TX: BRIT (Botanical Research Institute of Texas) Press.