Flora of North America species comparison

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

Sesuvium portulacastrum

Sesuvium trianthemoides

cencilla, shoreline sea-purslane

Texas sea-purslane
Habit Plants perennial, glabrous. Plants annual, papillate with crystalline globules occasional, glabrous.
Stems

prostrate, forming mats to 2 m diam., branched; rooting at nodes.

prostrate, branched, 1–4 dm.
Leaves

petiole ± absent;

blade oblanceolate to elliptic-ovate, to 6 × 2.5 cm, tapered to clasping base.

petiole clasping, broadly scarious-winged at base;

blade oblanceolate to spatulate, 3–5 cm, widest distally, base tapered.
Inflorescences

flowers solitary;

pedicel to 20 mm.

flowers solitary;

pedicel absent.
Flowers

calyx lobes pink-purple adaxially, with subapical abaxial appendages, ovate to lanceolate, 3–10 mm;

stamens 30;

pistil 5-carpellate;

ovary 5-loculed;

styles 5.

calyx lobes triangular-ovate, with small apical appendages, 3.5 mm;

stamens 5;

filaments 1 mm;

pistil 2-carpellate;

ovary 2-loculed;

styles 2.
Capsules

conic, 10 mm.

ovoid-ellipsoid, 4.5 mm.
Seeds

30–60, black, 1.2–1.5 mm, shiny, smooth.

10, brown, 1.5 mm, rugose with granular ridges.

Sesuvium portulacastrum

Sesuvium trianthemoides
Phenology Flowering year-round. Flowering summer (Jun–Aug).
Habitat Wet or desiccated soils, beaches, dunes, margins of coastal wetlands, waste grounds, ballast Wet depressions in coastal sand dunes
Elevation 0-5 m (0-0 ft) 0-4 m (0-0 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AL; FL; GA; LA; MS; NC; PA; SC; TX; Mexico; South America; Europe; Africa
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
TX
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Sesuvium portulacastrum is a widespread and variable subtropical and tropical species to which many names have been applied, particularly to material collected beyond North America (e.g., Argentina and Brazil). Although S. portulacastrum occurs or has been reported in natural habitats on the east coast of North America north to North Carolina, and from ballast north to the Delaware River in Pennsylvania, there are no verified records for this species occurring in western North America north of Mexico, where it occurs northward along the coasts of Sonora and Baja California. All records or collections of S. portulacastrum from desert wetlands of the United States are included in S. verrucosum.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Apparently Sesuvium trianthemoides is known only from the type locality. Additional investigation may reveal this entity should be included in S. maritimum.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 4, p. 81. FNA vol. 4, p. 81.
Parent taxa Aizoaceae > Sesuvium Aizoaceae > Sesuvium
Sibling taxa
S. maritimum, S. trianthemoides, S. verrucosum
S. maritimum, S. portulacastrum, S. verrucosum
Synonyms Portulaca portulacastrum, Halimus portulacastrum
Name authority (Linnaeus) Linnaeus: Syst. Nat. ed. 10, 2: 1058. (1759) Correll: Rhodora 68: 422. (1966)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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 Flora of North America yet, or it's listed under a synonym. And please note that Flora of North America is still missing several plant families, including Fabaceae, Apiaceae, Boraginaceae, and Polemoniaceae.)

Choose a data source: Flora of North America

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