Portulaca sclerocarpa

• Overview
• Interesting Facts
• Common Names
• Description
• Biology
• Taxonomy
• Similar Species
• More Info
• Further Reading
• Notes

Overview

Endangered

Interesting Facts

Common Names

Click on the language to view common names.

Description

Family Portulacaceae

Herbs annual or perennial , rarely ± shrubby, usually succulent, usually glabrous except for nodal hairs and/or scales . Leaves alternate or opposite; true stipules absent, nodes sometimes with axillary scales and/or hairs; petiole usually poorly defined or absent; leaf blade simple , usually fleshy , margin entire. Inflorescences usually terminal , less often axillary , in cymes or racemelike panicles, forming heads of sessile flowers surrounded by an involucre of leaves, or reduced to solitary flowers. Bracts inconspicuous. Flowers bisexual , very rarely unisexual , actinomorphic . Sepals 2, free or basally connate , herbaceous or scarious . Petals 4-6 or seldom more, distinct or basally connate, imbricate, often brightly colored , usually short lived. Disk usually absent. Stamens 4-100, free, fascicled, or adnate to petals; filaments linear ; anthers 2-loculed, introrse , dehiscence longitudinal . Ovary superior or half-inferior, 1-loculed, 2-5-carpellate; ovules 1 to many, campylotropous; placentation basal or free-central . Style linear; stigma 2-9-lobed. Fruit a thin-walled capsule, circumscissile or 2- or 3-valved, rarely a nut, often globose or subglobose, smooth . Seeds many, reniform or globose, caruncle present or not; endosperm mostly copious , surrounded by embryo.

About 19 genera and 500 species: mainly in more arid regions of S hemisphere, especially Africa, South America, and Australia, fewer species in Asia, Europe, and North America; two genera (one introduced ) and six species (two endemic, two introduced) in China.[1]

Genus Portulaca

Herbs, annual (perennial in P. suffrutescens). Roots tuberous , fleshy , fibrous , or small taproots . Stems erect to prostrate , branched, fleshy or suffrutescent ; trichomes in inflorescence or stem nodes absent or present, glabrous otherwise. Leaves alternate or subopposite, congested and involucrelike immediately proximal to inflorescence; blade terete , subterete, or flattened. Inflorescences terminal in clusters , or axillary on short branches. Flowers sessile or subsessile , usually open only in sunshine; sepals broadly clasping at base , herbaceous to scarious , falling from top of capsule; petals ephemeral , 5-7, usually distinct , margins usually entire; stamens (4-) 6-40(-100) ; ovary half inferior to inferior, plurilocular proximally to 1-locular distally, placentation free-central ; style 1, short, stigmas 3-8(-18). Capsules membranaceous , chartaceous , dehiscence circumscissile. Seeds many, brown to black or gray, reniform to cochleate; seed coat smooth or variously sculptured , granular to stellate-tuberculate or spiny . x = 4, 5, 8, 9.

Species 100-125: nearly worldwide, primarily tropical and subtropical , also temperate .[2]

Physical Description

Biology

Reproduction

Duration: Perennial

Taxonomy

Notes

Publishing author : A.Gray Publication : U.S. Expl. Exped., Phan. 15: 141 1854

Name Status: Accepted Name .

Last scrutiny: 15-Mar-2000

Similar Species

Members of the genus Portulaca

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 64 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus:

P. afra variegata (Elephant Bush) · P. amilis (Paraguayan Purslane) · P. biloba (Cuban Purslane) · P. caulerpoides (Puerto Rico Purslane) · P. fruticosa (Verdolaga-Francesa) · P. grandiflora (Moss Rose) · P. grandiflora 'Duet Candy Stripe' (Moss Rose) · P. grandiflora 'Duet Golden Sunrise' (Moss Rose) · P. grandiflora 'Duet Rose Improved' (Moss Rose) · P. grandiflora 'Duet Yellow' (Moss Rose) · P. grandiflora 'Giant Bicolor Radiance' (Moss Rose) · P. grandiflora 'Giant Pink Radiance' (Moss Rose) · P. grandiflora 'Margarita Mix' (Moss Rose) · P. grandiflora 'Margarita Orange' (Margarita Orange Portulaca) · P. grandiflora 'Margarita Rosita' (Margarita Rosita Portulaca) · P. grandiflora 'Margarita Scarlet' (Margarita Scarlet Portulaca) · P. grandiflora 'Rouge Rubis' (Moss Rose) · P. grandiflora 'Sundial Mango' (Moss Rose) · P. grandiflora 'Sundial Mix' (Moss Rose) · P. grandiflora 'Yubi Rose With Red Eye' (Moss Rose) · P. grandiflora 'Yubi Summer Joy Apricot' (Moss Rose) · P. grandiflora 'Yubi Summer Joy Light Pink' (Moss Rose) · P. grandiflora 'Yubi Summer Joy Orange' (Moss Rose) · P. grandiflora 'Yubi Summer Joy Pink' (Moss Rose) · P. grandiflora 'Yubi Summer Joy Rose' (Moss Rose) · P. grandiflora 'Yubi Summer Joy Rose With Red Eye' (Moss Rose) · P. grandiflora 'Yubi Summer Joy Scarlet' (Moss Rose) · P. grandiflora 'Yubi Summer Joy White' (Moss Rose) · P. grandiflora 'Yubi Summer Joy Wine Red' (Moss Rose) · P. halimoides (Silk-Cotton Purslane) · P. lanceolata umbraticola (Wingpod Purslane) · P. lutea (Native Yellow Purslane) · P. molokiniensis ('ihi) · P. oleracea oleracea (Akulikuli-Kula) · P. oleracea var. sativa (Kitchen-Garden Purslane) · P. oleracea 'Double Yubi Gold' (Little Hogweed) · P. oleracea 'Double Yubi Lemon Yellow' (Little Hogweed) · P. oleracea 'Double Yubi Orange' (Little Hogweed) · P. oleracea 'Double Yubi Pink' (Little Hogweed) · P. oleracea 'Double Yubi Purple and Yellow' (Little Hogweed) · P. oleracea 'Double Yubi Rose' (Little Hogweed) · P. oleracea 'Double Yubi Sunset Red' (Little Hogweed) · P. oleracea 'Double Yubi White' (Little Hogweed) · P. oleracea 'Goldberg' (Little Hogweed) · P. oleracea 'Yubi Yellow' (Little Hogweed) · P. pilosa (Chisme) · P. quadrifida (Chickenweed) · P. rubricaulis (Redstem Purslane) · P. sativa (Golden Purslane) · P. sativa 'Goldgelber' (Golden Purslane) · P. sclerocarpa ('ihi Makole) · P. smallii (Small's Purslane) · P. suffrutescens (Shrubby Purslane) · P. teretifolia (Roundleaf Purslane) · P. triangularis (Verdolaga-Francesa) · P. umbraticola (Wing-Pod Purslane) · P. umbraticola subsp. coronata (Wingpod Purslane) · P. villosa (Hairy Purslane) · P. 'Fairytale Cinderella' (Double Portulaca) · P. 'Fairytale Sleeping Beauty' (Double Portulaca) · P. 'Fairytale Snow White' (Double Portulaca) · P. 'Giant Jewel' (Portulaca) · P. 'Sunnyside Mix' (Portulaca) · P. 'Tequila Fuchsia' (Moss Rose)

More Info

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Further Reading

• 1997 IUCN red list of threatened plants Cambridge: IUCN, World Conservation Union, 1998 url p. 468.
• Flora Malesiana. general editor, C.G.G.J. van Steenis. Djakarta: Noordhoff-Kolff, 1950- url p. 131.
• Flora of the Hawaiian islands: a description of their phanerogams and vascular cryptogams /by William Hillebrand; annotated and published after the author's death by W.F. Hillebrand. 1888 London: New York: Williams & Norgate; B. Westermann, 1888. url p. 39.
• Journal of botany, British and foreign. 7 1869 London: Robert Hardwicke, 1863-1942. url p. 174.
• Occasional papers of Bernice P. Bishop Museum. Honolulu, Bishop Museum Press, 1898-1984. url p. 10, p. 100, p. 6, p. 88, p. 92, p. 96.
• Pamphlets on forestry in Hawaii. [1900?- url p. 14, p. 6.
• Phytologia. Bronx Park, New York, H.A. Gleason and H.N. Moldenke, url p. 378.
• Proceedings of the Essex Institute. Salem: Essex Institute Press. url p. 132.
• Lu Dequan. 1996. Portulacaceae. In: Tang Changlin, ed., Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 26: 3642.
• Legrand, C. D. 1962. Las especies Americanas de Portulaca. Anales Mus. Hist. Nat. Montevideo, ser. 2, 7: 1-147.
• Matthews, J. F. and P. A. Levins. 1985. The genus Portulaca in the southeastern United States. Castanea 50: 96-104.
• Walters, S. M. 1964. Portulaca. In: T. G. Tutin et al., eds. 1964-1980. Flora Europaea. 5 vols. Cambridge. Vol. 1, p. 114.
• Wilson, P. 1932b. Portulaca. In: N. L. Britton et al., eds. 1905+. North American Flora.... 47+ vols. New York. Vol. 21, pp 328-336.

Notes

Contributors

• Brands, S.J. (comp.) 1989-present. The Taxonomicon. Universal Taxonomic Services, Zwaag, The Netherlands. Accessed January 15, 2012.

Data Sources

Accessed through GBIF Data Portal February 02, 2008:

• USDA PLANTS, USDA PLANTS Database

Identifiers

• Biodiversity Heritage Library NamebankID: 2646689
• Catalogue of Life Accepted Name Code: ITS-20437
• GRIN Nomen Number: 320441
• Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) Taxonomic Serial Number (TSN): 20437
• International Plant Names Index (IPNI) ID: 699364-1
• U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Species Identifier: Q20T
• U.S.D.A. Plant Symbol: POSC9
• Zipcode Zoo Species Identifier: 57823

Footnotes

1. Dequan Lu & Michael G. Gilbert "Portulacaceae". in Flora of China Vol. 5 Page 442. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
2. James F. Matthews "Portulaca". in Flora of North America Vol. 4 Page 457, 458, 496. Oxford University Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]

©2004-2012 David Stang. All rights reserved.