Portulaca

a genus of plants, so named by the botanist Tournefort. There are about twenty species, chiefly tropical. All are fleshy herbs, prostrate or ascending, with thick juicy leaves. The ovary is one-celled and contains a mass of small, shiny seeds. The garden portulaca has showy terminal flowers, red, yellow, purple, and variegated. They open in bright sunshine and close on the approach of a shower or at eventide. The common purslane is known to botanists as Portulaca oleracea. It is a common weed in American gardens. It is capable of resisting drouth, and, even when cut off by the hoe, it will root again if left on moist earth. The flowers of this species are inconspicuous. Other members of the portulaca family are the Claytonia, or spring beauty, and the bitter root, or Lewisia, of the Rocky Mountains. A related shrub of Cape Colony is known as the purslane tree. Related species from California, Peru, and Australia are known to the horticulturist as Calandrinia.