Portulaca oleracea is the scientific name for common purslane and I believe that oleracea means "like a vegetable" or something to that effect. Favored as a European pot herb in the Middle Ages, people on this continent have been tossing the tasty greens into pinto beans for centuries. Only recently, however, has information about the amazing nutritional value of purslane hit the internet, and it used to be quite hard to find the seeds. Now that people understand that this green is not ony tasty, but packed with Omega 3, it is rather ubiquitous.
This blossom opened the second day after I stuck a cutting from a bunch of "verdolagas" bought on sale at 3/$1 at a local market in the AeroGarden to root. Normally I would pinch off buds and the larger leaves to allow the plant to give strength to root formation, but I didn't see this one. The blossoms last less an a day.
In addition to the essential fatty acids, this low calorie plant is jam packed with alpha-linolenic acid and has more vitamin E than spinach. Here is a full nutritional breakdown:
Portulaca sativa means "cultivated" purslane and refers to a subspecies of purslane that has been bred to have a milder flavor that some describe as "nutty" and a most attractive color and texture. Commonly called Golden Purslane, this is the one I prefer when munching on a stalk raw right off the plant or in a salad. "Sativa" is the subspecies, so the alternate name would be Portulaca olerace sativa. At first it looks just like the other one, but as it gets bigger, it is easier to understand why they call it "golden" because when the light shines through them, the translucent leaves take on a lovely yellow-green glow.
When purslane is in survival mode, breaking through a crack in the cement on a scorching August day without a drop of water in sight, it lies pretty flat, but give it optimal growing conditions and it is a most amazing plant. Here is what a seedling rooted in a glass of water can do in a few days:
From seed it took about a month to get big enough for snacking. However, once it gets going, snipping branches off to add to a salad or make new plants just encourages more rapid growth. That is a good thing for me, since I like to munch on a twig whenever I walk past the planter.
It took 3 days to root these cuttings and the new plant was 6 days old in the picture above. Here it is again after 4 days of nice growth:
Here is the parent plant, dwarfing the thyme to the left.
Here is purslane that I bought at the supermarket and rooted indoors in water after it was moved outdoors, now happily growing in dirt:
