We have had good neighbors and bad ones over the years, but we fell into a pot of gold with the folks in our latest community. They are just special in many ways, but in addition to lending helping hands and handing out good cheer, they are avid sharers of cuttings. Even though they grow their plants in dirt and mine are mostly confined to water, the young cuttings do not know any difference.
Thanks to a friend from up the street, I now have three kinds of begonias to play with and what at first glance I took it for a striking new purple portulaca:
We took the cutting after dark and I just stuck it in the glass, snapped the photo and toddled off the bed without thinking much about it. But when the flower opened up in the morning it was clearly NOT a portulaca.
On closer examination the leaves, although needle-like, are more triangular, and the flower looks like some kind of ice plant. Whatever it is, the color is just brilliant and we shall soon find out if it roots in water.
I do hope it is not poisonous, whatever it turns out to be, as I put it in the same AeroGarden as my Asia Red Amaranth. I'd like to have a rule about not growing any poisonous plants, but that would require getting rid of my beloved Pothos and that is not going to happen. Periwinkle, too. And all the lovely Morning Glories. Sigh.
Speaking of what to munch and what not to, although the leaves of portulaca grandiflora are rumored to be edible, I will stick to my favorite weed Purslane for fresh greens--that and the delicious Nasturtium greens that I munch daily. It is rumored thought that the seeds of grandiflora are good though, and quite nutritious.
I just harvested an armload of my pampered organic purslane today, and is it ever scrumptious in vegetable beef soup. The other veggies were onions, baby carrots, celery, and broccoli. I always put rosemary in my beef soup, too.
Here is someone else who extols the virtues of this purslane as a snack:
I especially like this articulate blogger's post on "les légumes oubliés" (the forgotten vegetables.)