🌿 Weed
ANX-WEED-0000255
Purslane
Portulaca oleracea
Purslane (Portulaca oleracea), an annual broadleaf (succulent) weed of the Portulacaceae family.
- Family
- Portulacaceae
- Growth habit
- Broadleaf (succulent)
- Life cycle
- Annual
- Invasive status
- Naturalized, widespread
- Native region
- Uncertain, likely Indian subcontinent/Middle East, now cosmopolitan.
- Reproduction
- Seed - extremely prolific (up to 2 million seeds per plant) and stem fragments that root readily if left on moist soil.
Environment
Habitat & Growing Conditions
- Habitat
- Gardens, cultivated fields, disturbed and sandy ground.
- Climate requirements
- Warm temperate to tropical; highly drought-tolerant (CAM/C4 photosynthesis).
- Soil types
- Grows in poor, dry, or sandy soils where many other weeds struggle.
Impact
Crops Affected & Economic Impact
- Affected crops
- Vegetable crops, row crops, especially in dry-season plantings
- Competition impact
- Succulent stems store enough moisture to re-root and survive after hoeing, making it notoriously hard to kill by cultivation alone.
- Economic impact
- A very common, hard-to-control garden and field weed, though also cultivated as a food crop in some regions.
Management
Control Methods
- Control methods
- Remove and dispose of pulled plants away from moist soil rather than leaving them in the field.
- Organic control
- Hoeing followed by complete removal of plant material (it is also edible and nutrient-rich, often harvested as a leaf vegetable instead of discarded).
- Chemical control
- Pre-emergent herbicides are more reliable than post-emergent contact herbicides, since cut stems can re-root.