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Portulaca oleracea ( common purslane, also known as little hogweed, or pursley) is a succulent plant in the family Portulacaceae. All parts of the plant are edible raw or cooked.
The fruits are many-seeded capsules. The seed set is considerable; large plants have been reported to produce up to 240,000 seeds. The seeds germinate optimally at a temperature above 25 °C; they are light germinators, with even a soil cover of 5 mm having a negative effect on germination.
Although usually an annual plant, it is a tropical perennial in United States Department of Agriculture growing Hardiness zone 10–11).
In Japan, the name "Hana-suberihiyu" (花スベリヒユ, literally "flower purslane") is often used for these ornamental types, in order to distinguish them from the edible wild purslane.
The flowering plant more commonly known as winter purslane ( Claytonia perfoliata) is a member of the Montiaceae family and is not closely related.
Compared to other common crops, P. oleracea is more tolerant of pests due to its waxy cover, which protects the plant from insects and diseases. In some instances, P. oleracea is even known to have antifungal properties. However some phytotoxic metabolites of Drechslera indica, a fungus, can cause necrosis on purslane. Dichotomophthora portulacae, another fungus, can cause stem rot. P. oleracea is a known host plant of Hyles lineata.
Schizocerella pilicornis and Hypurus bertrandi are known to feed on Portulaca oleracea. In some instances, they may help control the competitiveness of P. oleracea to prevent weed infestation in fields where P. oleracea is not wanted, however, they do not stop it from growing completely.
Purslane can remove salt from the cultivation medium under saline conditions. As an intercrop or during one growing season, it can remove of chloride and of sodium when cultivated at , allowing growth of salt-sensitive plants on saline soils. In salty conditions, purslane has a positive effect on companion plants such as tomatoes.
Purslane leaves are very high in oxalates, containing high levels, with one study finding \(23.45\pm 0.45\) g total oxalates per kg of fresh weight (or 23450 mg/kg). Another source reports \(671-869\) mg/100g fresh weight.
The plant may be eaten as a leaf vegetable. William Cobbett noted that it was "eaten by Frenchmen and pigs when they can get nothing else. Both use it in salad, that is to say, raw". It has a slightly sour and salty taste and is eaten throughout much of Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Mexico. Pests in Landscapes and Gardens: Common Purslane. Pest Notes University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources Publication 7461. October 2003 The stems, leaves, and flower buds are all edible raw or cooked. Purslane may be used fresh as a salad, stir-frying, or cooked as spinach is, and because of its mucilaginous quality it also is suitable for and . The sour taste is due to oxalic acid and malic acid, the latter of which is produced through the CAM pathway that is seen in many (plants living in dry conditions) and is at its highest when the plant is harvested in the early morning. Harold McGee. On Food and Cooking. Scribner. 2004 edition.
Aboriginal Australians use the seeds of purslane to make seedcakes. Greeks, who call it () or (), use the leaves and the stems with feta cheese, tomato, onion, garlic, oregano, and olive oil. They add it to salads, boil it, or add it to casseroled chicken. In Turkey, besides being used in salads and baked pastries, it is cooked as a vegetable similar to spinach or is mixed with yogurt to form a tzatziki variant. In Sudan, the vegetable is known as (رجلة) it is also cooked as a vegetable stew, similar to how spinach and malva (خبيزة) are cooked, but not fresh in salads. In Kurdistan, people commonly make a kind of soup from it called palpina soup (شۆربای پەڵپینە). In the Alentejo region of Portugal, purslane is used for cooking a traditional soup (sopa de beldroegas) which is topped with soaked bread, poached eggs, and/or goat's cheese. In Mexico and the American Southwest, the plant is consumed as verdolagas.
In antiquity, its healing properties were thought so reliable that Pliny the Elder advised wearing the plant as an amulet to expel all evil ( Natural History 20.210).
The plant is mentioned in Rabbinic literature variably as rgila (), ḥalaglogit (), and parpaḥonya (). The Talmud recounts that Chazal were initially unfamiliar with the term ḥaloglogot. However, they realised it was the same as parpaḥonya after witnessing Rabbi Judah ha-Nasi's maidservant reprimand a man who was scattering the plant while using this term. The plant is also mentioned in a piyyut by Eleazar ben Kalir, by Maimonides, and by Tanhum of Jerusalem. Tanhum states that the plant is known to medics as "the fast vegetable" due to its quick spreading and branching.
Verdolaga, the Spanish language word for purslane, is a nickname for South American football clubs with green-white schemes in their uniforms, including Colombia's Atletico Nacional and Argentina's Ferrocarril Oeste. Afro-Colombian singer Totó la Momposina sings a song entitled "La Verdolaga."
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