UW Burke Herbarium species comparison

The green links below add additional plants to the comparison table. Blue links lead to other Web sites.
enable glossary links

Portulaca oleracea

common purslane
Habit Glabrous, fleshy annual with several prostrate, freely-branched stems up to 3 dm. long.
Leaves

Leaves alternate, somewhat clustered at the branch tips, spatulate to obovate, 1-3 cm. long and 3-10 mm. wide.
Flowers

Flowers sessile, axillary and in small, terminal clusters;

sepals 2, 3-4 mm. long, keeled, acute, attached to the lower part of the ovary, making the ovary partly inferior;

petals usually 5, yellow, slightly shorter than the sepals;

stamens 6-10;

styles 4-6, united below.
Fruits

Capsule

Portulaca oleracea
Flowering time june-September
Habitat Fields, roadsides, wastelots, and other disturbed areas.
Distribution
Occurring on both sides of the Cascades crest in Washington; Alaska to California, east across North America to the Atlantic Coast.
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Origin Introduced from Europe
Conservation status Not of concern
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the University of Washington's Burke Herbarium.



Type/paste one or more Latin names into the boxes above; matching taxa will show up below the box as you type. You can use the up/down arrow keys to move through the list.

(If the plant you're looking for doesn't show up in the auto-complete list, that means it either isn't described in UW Burke Herbarium yet, or it's listed under a synonym.)

Choose a data source: Flora of North America, OregonFlora, UW Burke Herbarium

The species comparison tool is brought to you by:
Northwest Wildflowers