Portulaca oleracea var. sativa

Portulaca oleracea (common purslane, also known as little hogweed, or pursley) is a succulent plant in the family Portulacaceae. All parts of the plant are edible raw or cooked.

Description

A sprawling annual plant. It grows to 30 cm high. The thick leaves occur in rings or rosettes. They are succulent and bright green. This is the cultivated selection.

Edible Uses

All parts of purslane are edible raw or cooked. The seeds can be eaten raw or used to make flour. The plant may be eaten as a leaf vegetable. William Cobbett noted that it was "eaten by Frenchmen and pigs when they can get nothing else. Both use it in salad, that is to say, raw". It has a slightly sour and salty taste and is eaten throughout much of Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Mexico. The stems, leaves, and flower buds are all edible raw or cooked. Purslane may be used fresh as a salad, stir-fried, or cooked as spinach is, and because of its mucilaginous quality it also is suitable for soups and stews. The sour taste is due to oxalic and malic acid, the latter of which is produced through the CAM pathway that is seen in many xerophytes (plants living in dry conditions) and is at its highest when the plant is harvested in the early morning. Aboriginal Australians use the seeds of purslane to make seedcakes. Greeks, who call it andrákla (αντράκλα) or glistrída (γλιστρίδα), use the leaves and the stems with feta cheese, tomato, onion, garlic, oregano, and olive oil. They add it to salads, boil it, or add it to casseroled chicken. In Turkey, besides being used in salads and baked pastries, it is cooked as a vegetable similar to spinach or is mixed with yogurt to form a tzatziki variant. In Sudan, the vegetable is known as regla (رجلة) it is also cooked as a vegetable stew, similar to how spinach and malva (خبيزة) are cooked, but not fresh in salads. In Kurdistan, people commonly make a kind of soup from it called palpina soup (شۆربای پەڵپینە). In the Alentejo region of Portugal, purslane is used for cooking a traditional soup (sopa de beldroegas) which is topped with soaked bread, poached eggs, and/or goat's cheese. In Mexico and the American Southwest, the plant is consumed as verdolagas.

Traditional Uses

The young leaves are picked and can be cooked like spinach.

This uses section is brief — help expand it

Distribution

It can be grown in tropical and temperate places. It is damaged by frost.

Where It Grows

Australia, Balkans, Macedonia,

Cultivation

Seed are sown where plants are to grow. Plants should be about 15 cm apart.

Other Information

It is cultivated.

Notes

There are about 200 Portulaca species. They are mostly in the tropics and subtropics. It is a cultivated food plant.

Dangerous Lookalikes

This plant can be confused with the following toxic species. Always verify identification carefully before consuming any wild plant.

TOXIC

Spotted Spurge

Euphorbia maculata

Hardyplants at English Wikipedia

Safe

Purslane or Golden purslane

Portulaca oleracea var. sativa

Thomas Gyselinck

Spotted Spurge: Milky white latex sap when broken, thinner leaves often with dark spot, prostrate growth, tiny flowers.

Purslane or Golden purslane: Clear sap, thick succulent leaves, reddish smooth stems, yellow flowers.

Nutrition

References (6)

• Flora of Pakistan. www.eFloras.org
• Gouldstone, S., 1983, Growing your own Food-bearing Plants in Australia. Macmillan p 178
• Heywood, V. H. & Zohary, D.,1995, A Catalogue of the Wild Relatives of Cultivated Plants Native to Europe. Flora Mediterranea 5 - 1995, p 381
• Plants for a Future database, The Field, Penpol, Lostwithiel, Cornwall, PL22 0NG, UK. http://www.scs.leeds.ac.uk/pfaf/
• Smith, K & I., 1999, Grow your own bushfoods. New Holland. Australia. p 72

More from Portulacaceae

Portulaca fluvialis

Portulaca grandiflora

Rose moss, Sun plant

Portulaca intraterranea

Inland pigweed, Buttercup Pigface

Portulaca johnii

Portulaca lutea

Yellow purslane

Portulaca napiformis