PURSLANE FAMILY. Portulacaceae. 



PURSLANE FAMILY. Portulacacece. 



A small group of low herbs with thick juicy leaves, 

 and perfect but unbalanced flowers — that is, with two 

 sepals and five petals and as many stamens as petals, 

 or more sepals, or an indefinite number of stamens, or 

 sometimes the petals altogether lacking. Cross-ferti- 

 lization is largely effected by bees and butterflies. Fruit 

 a capsule filled with several or many shell-shaped or 

 kidney-shaped seeds. 



An annual ; a fleshy-leaved prostrate 

 Purslane or weed naturalize( j f rom t he old world, and 

 PuSkV 



Portulaca commonly found in gardens and door- 



oleracea yards. Stems thick and often a terra- 



Yellow cotta pink, leaves dark green, thick, and 



June ~ round-end wedge-shaped. The tiny, soli- 



ep em er ^^ yellow flowers with five petals open 

 only in the morning sunshine, 7-12 stamens. The 

 branches hug the ground and spread or radiate in an 

 ornamental circle ; they are 3-10 inches long. In early 

 days the plant was used as a pot herb. It is indigenous 

 in the southwest, but is firmly established in the north 

 where it flourishes under any and all conditions, and has 

 become a very troublesome weed. 



A charmingly delicate flower (rarely 

 aa'tonM r"r- y <l uite white ) of earl y s P rin S> distinguished 

 ginica for its nusn of P ale crimson-pink, and its 



Pale pink or veins of deeper pink starting from a yel- 

 white i ow base. The deep green leaves are linear 



March-May Qr b roa( j erj ^he two upper ones located 

 at about the middle of the plant-stem. The flower has 

 five petals and but two sepals. Its golden stamens de- 

 velop before the stigma is mature, making cross-ferti- 

 lization a certainty. Its visitors in search of pollen and 

 nectar are mostly the bumblebees Bombvs vagana and 

 B. pemisylvanicus, the beelike flies called Bombylidce, 

 and the bees of the genus Halictus and Andrenidce ; 

 also among the butterflies are Colias philodice, yellow, 

 and Papilio ajax, buff and black. Stem 6-12 inches 

 high. In open moist woods, from Me., south to Ga., 

 and southwest to Tex. 



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