302 MISC. PUBLICATION 42 3, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 



Key to the species 



1. Capsule rim conspicuously extended in a circular membranous wing; plant 

 annual, glabrous; leaf blades flat, lanceolate or spatulate; petals reddish 



with a yellow base 1. P. lanceolata. 



1. Capsule rim not winged (2). 



2. Petals pink or purplish, 3 to 4 mm. long; plant annual, copiously and con- 

 spicuously pubescent in the leaf axils with long kinky hairs; stems 

 spreading or procumbent, commonly less than 10 cm. long; leaves 



subterete 2. P. parvula. 



2. Petals yellow or copper-colored (3) . 



3. Plant perennial, with tuberous-thickened roots, pubescent in the leaf axils 

 (usually conspicuously so) with long kinky hairs; stems commonly 

 erect or ascending and more than 10 cm. long, sometimes slightly 

 woody at base; leaves linear, subterete; petals more than 5 mm. long, 



reddish or copper-colored 3. P. suffrutescens. 



3. Plants annual, glabrous or with a few inconspicuous short hairs in the axils; 



stems commonly decumbent or prostrate; leaves obovate-cuneate or 



spatulate, thick but flat; petals less than 5 mm. long, yellow (4). 



4. Seeds (at low magnification) conspicuously and sharply granulate 



(almost echinate), very nearly to fully 1 mm. in greatest diameter. 



4. P. RETUSA. 



4. Seeds minutely and not sharply granulate, usually distinctly less than 



1 mm. in diameter 5. P. oleracea. 



1. Portulaca lanceolata Engelm., Boston Jour. Nat. Hist. 6: 154. 



1850. 

 Pinal, Cochise, Santa Cruz, and Pima Counties, 3,000 to 5,000 feet, 

 August to September. Western Texas to Arizona and Baja California. 



2. Portulaca parvula A. Grav, Amer. Acad. Arts and Sci. Proc. 



22: 274. 1887. 

 Navajo, Gila, Pinal, Cochise, Santa Cruz, and Pima Counties, 1,300 

 to 7,000 feet, September. Missouri to Colorado, Arizona, California, 

 and central Mexico. 



3. Portulaca suffrutescens Engelm., Bot. Gaz. 6: 236. 1881. 

 Yavapai County to Cochise, Santa Cruz, and Pima Counties, 3,000 



to 5,500 feet, July to September. Arkansas and Texas to Arizona and 

 northern Mexico. 



Arizona's showiest species, the flowers sometimes 3 cm. wide. 



4. Portulaca retusa Engelm., Boston Jour. Nat. Hist. 6: 154. 1850. 

 Navajo, Coconino, Gila, Pinal, Cochise, and Santa Cruz Counties, 



1,300 to 5,500 feet, sometimes in saline soil, August to September. 

 Arkansas and Texas to Utah and Arizona. 



Difficult to distinguish from P. oleracea except by the seed char- 

 acters. 



5. Portulaca oleracea L., Sp. PI. 445. 1753. 



Apache, Navajo, and Santa Cruz Counties, 4,000 to 8,600 feet, 

 late summer. Widely distributed in both the Eastern and the Western 

 Hemisphere. 



Common purslane, pusley. A common garden weed in the eastern 

 United States but rare in Arizona. 



40. CARYOPHYLLACEAE. Pink family 



Plants herbaceous, annual or perennial; leaves opposite, entire; 

 flowers perfect, regular, mostly with both a calyx and a corolla but 





