Dwarf Purslane

The plants are used for medicinal purposes. They are sometimes a troublesome weed of cultivation, as they break up very easily and small fragments can act as propagules.

The leaves are diuretic, used in dysuria and externally applied in erysipelas. Seeds used as a vermifuge.

Herbs annual. Stems articulated, prostrate, rooting at nodes; leaf axils patent pilose. Leaves opposite; petiole absent; leaf blade flat, ovate, obovate, or ovate-elliptic, 4-8 × 2-5 mm, slightly narrowed toward base, apex obtuse or acute. Flowers solitary, surrounded by involucre of 4 or 5 bracts, white pilose. Sepals obovate-oblong, 2.5-3 mm, membranous, veined. Petals 4, yellow, oblong or broadly elliptic, 3-6 mm, connate at base, apex mucronate. Stamens 8-10. Ovary ovoid. Stigma (3- or)4-lobed. Capsule globose, ca. 2.5 mm, pericarp membranous. Seeds gray, subglobose, laterally compressed, minute, muricate. Fl. and fr. year-round.

Diffuse annual, prostrate, glabrous, somewhat fleshy, rooting at nodes. Tap root somewhat woody, nodal adventitious roots fibrous, up to 3 cm long. Stem and branches filiform, internodes 2-20 (-35) mm long. Leaves opposite, sessile to subsessile, ovate-oblong to elliptic-oblong or ovate to ovate-lanceolate, 3-10 mm long, 2-3 mm broad, acute or somewhat obtuse, fleshy; stipular hairs copious, silvery white, 2-10 mm long. Flowers solitary terminal, yellow, 6-8 mm across, surrounded by a 4-leaved involucre and silvery hairs. Sepals equal, membranous, basally united into a minute tube half embedded in the floral axis, ovate-oblong, 3- 4.5 mm long, 2-2.5 mm broad, obtuse. Petals 4, united at the base, pandurate, 3- 4 mm long, 1.5-2 mm broad, obtuse, yellow. Stamens 8, adnate to petals; filaments filiform, 1.5-2.5 mm long. Carpels 4, syncarpous; ovary c. 2 mm, half sunk in floral axis; style c. 2 mm long, quadrifid, with 4 linear, reclinate stigmas. Capsule 3.5- 4.5 mm long, 2.5-3 mm in diam., oblong-conical. Seeds black, c. 1 mm, reniform, somewhat papillose.

Distribution: Dry waste places. West Pakistan, India, tropical Africa and Asia.

Fl. Per. Aug.-March.

Open disturbed grounds, sandy soils. Guangdong, Hainan (including Xisha Qundao), Taiwan, S Yunnan [probably native to Africa, now pantropical].

Portulaca formosana (Hayata) Hayata; P. quadrifida var. formosana Hayata.

quadrifida: cut into four

Prostate annual herb, growing from a somewhat swollen taproot. Stems reddish, up to 25 cm long, often rooting at the nodes. Leaves opposite, fleshy, lanceolate, elliptic-oblong, rarely cordate-ovate, up to 10 × 4 mm, often much smaller, somewhat flattened on both surfaces; stipular hairs numerous, up to 3-5 mm long, whitish. Flowers at the ends of branches, solitary or in clusters of 2-4; petals 4, rarely 5, yellow to orange, very rarely pink or purplish, almost free. Stamens 8-12. Capsule conical-ovoid, dehiscing horizontally.

Pantropical and subtropical.

Portulaca quadrifida L. Mant. 73. 1767
Portulaca micro phylla A. Rich. Ess. Fl. Cuba 620. 1845.
A prostrate, much-branched annual, with slender stems, creeping and rooting at the nodes, hairy in tufts in the axils of the leaves; leaves opposite, the blades flat, elliptic to elliptic-ovate, ovate, or oval, 3-6 mm. long, 1.2-3 mm. broad, acute or obtuse at the apex, rounded or aeutish at the base, short-petioled, fleshy; flowers terminal, solitary or 2, surrounded with long white hairs and an involucre of 4 or 5 leaves; sepals oblong-oval, about 2 mm. long, obtuse, thin; corolla yellow; petals 4, elliptic or oval, obtuse; stamens 8-12; style-lobes 4; capsule circumscissile above the base; seeds grayish or grayish-black, O.S-0.9 mm. wide, spiny-tuberculate.
Type locality: Egypt.
Distribution; West Indies; also in South America and the Old World tropics.

Portulaca quadrifida, known as pusley, wild purslane, chicken weed (or chickenweed), single‑flowered purslane, small‑leaved purslane and 10 o'clock plant, is a species of flowering plant in the genus Portulaca, possibly native to Africa, but certainly widespread over the Old World Tropics, and introduced elsewhere. It is collected in the wild and eaten in salads or cooked, and is a favorite fodder for chickens and pigs.