Common Name: PURSLANE FAMILY
Habit: Annual to perennial herb, generally fleshy. Stem: [1]several to many, spreading [to erect], generally glabrous. Leaf: simple, alternate or opposite, linear, obovate, spoon-shaped, [elliptic, +- round], flat or cylindric, hairs in axils, inconspicuous or not [0], upper 2--5 forming involucre. Inflorescence: flowers 1 or clustered at stem tips. Flower: bisexual, radial; sepals 2, fused at base, lower part fused to ovary and generally persistent in fruit; petals [4]5[7], fused at base, forming ring, yellow [magenta, rose, orange, white]; stamens 4--20[> 20], epipetalous or not, anthers yellow; ovary 1/2-inferior, chamber 1, ovules several to many, placenta free-central; style branches [2]3--6[12]. Fruit: capsule, circumscissile. Seed: many, reniform, +- tubercled, black, gray, [brown, +- blue].
Genera In Family: 1 genus, +- 100 species: +- worldwide, especially tropics, subtropics some cultivated (Portulaca grandiflora Hook.; Portulaca umbraticola Kunth). Note: All other California genera previously in this family now in Montiaceae.
eFlora Treatment Author: Gilberto Ocampo
Scientific Editor: Thomas J. Rosatti.