Portulaca oleracea L.
PORTULACACEAE
Synonymy
Common Name: Portulaca, Pigweed, Common Purslane, Munyeroo
Description: Annual or perennial herb, succulent, prostrate to erect with pink-tinged stems to 33 cm long, glabrous except for inconspicuous hair tufts at nodes and capitula and papillae on upper stems and leaves. Leaves petiolate to 5 mm, occasionally winged deciduous or persistent. Cauline leaves with the lamina oblong, oblanceolate, elliptic, obovate or rarely narrowly elliptic, 3-29 mm long, 1.5-13.5 mm wide; involucral leaves linear, oblanceolate, oblong, lanceolate, narrowly elliptic or obovate, 4-21.5 mm long, 1.5-9 mm wide. Inflorescence of terminal and axillary capitula. Bracteoles shallowly to very shallowly triangular, 2-4 mm long, 2-3 mm wide, scarious. Sepals 2, ovate, depressed ovate, 3-7 mm long, 3-5.5 mm wide, persistent. Petals 4 or 5, narrowly oblong, obovate or oblanceolate, 7-10 mm long, 4-10 mm wide, yellow, slightly dimorphic. Stamens up to 20, to 5 mm long. Style to 5 mm. Stigmas 3-6. Capsule 2.5-7 mm long, operculum conical-conoidal, domed and flared, sometimes constricted and striate at apex, shiny, cartilaginous. Seeds numerous, obovoid, laterally compressed, 0.5-1.0 mm long, black to metallic grey, echinate, tuberculate, cells black, metallic-grey, dark red brown, almost smooth to echinate, cells irregularly stellulate to stellulate.
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Notes: The tuberous roots and succulent leaves of this species can be eaten (e.g. Raymond et al. 1999). Six informally named entities are identified below as occurring in the NT, with some having reasonably cohesive distributions. However, due to variation in seed dimensions and texture and in operculum size and shape, not all specimens are easily assigned to them. At least some of these specimens may be hybrids between the introduced weedy entity and the native entities but further work is required to resolve the taxa within the complex. A provisional key to these entities is downloadable from this page.
Distribution
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Specimens
Observations
Cultivated
Introduced Status: Native to NT
Distribution Notes: A cosmopolitan species found in all states and territories of Australia.
Bioregion: Arnhem Plateau, Burt Plain, Channel Country, Desert Uplands, Finke, Great Sandy Desert, Gulf Coastal, Gulf Fall and Uplands, Gulf Plains, Little Sandy Desert, MacDonnell Ranges, Mitchell Grass Downs, Ord Victoria Plain, Simpson Strzelecki Dunefields, South Eastern Queensland, Sturt Plateau, Victoria Bonaparte
Ecological Attributes
Flowering: all year
Fruiting: all year
Other Attributes
Conservation Status (TPWCA): Least Concern
Restricted Range Taxon: N
NT Parks: Keep River National Park, Limmen National Park, Mac Clark (Acacia peuce) Conservation Reserve, Tjoritja / West MacDonnell National Park, Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park
Flora Description Source: Unpublished notes prepared for FloraNT
PDF Factsheet
Specimens