The open plant encyclopedia
Snap a photo or search by any name to see how to care for it, where it comes from, whether it's safe, and a 3D model you can turn.
The plants people record most in your country, and ones that grow there wild.
Filter by what you want to do, shape, origin, country, care and safety.
Portulaca oleracea
Also called Common purslane, Moss rose, Pigweed, Pusley, Red root, Verdolaga, Purslane
Common purslane is a low, mat-forming succulent annual with fleshy leaves and small yellow flowers, widely grown and foraged as a leafy vegetable. It thrives in hot, dry, sunny spots and tolerates poor soil.
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.
Purslane has an extensive distribution, assumed to be mostly anthropogenic (or hemerochoric), extending from North Africa and Southern Europe through the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent to Malesia and Australasia. The species status in the Americas is uncertain. In general, it is often considered an exotic weed, but there is evidence that the species was in Crawford Lake deposits (Ontario) in 1350–1539, suggesting that it reached North America in the pre-Columbian era. Scientists suggested that the plant was already eaten by Native Americans, who spread its seeds. How it reached the Americas is currently unknown.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Portulaca oleracea by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
Pet safety from the ASPCA toxic and non-toxic plant lists.
