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.