Succulent annual or perennial herbs, mostly with tuberous roots; stems prostrate to ascending or erect
Leaves
alternate or subopposite, flat or terete, mostly with axillary hairs and rarely with axillary scales; stipules scarious or reduced to fascicles of setae
Inflorescences
terminal cymose heads, often surrounded by an involucre, or flowers solitary or in groups of 2
Flowers
bisexual, sessile
Sepals
2, often connate at base, imbricate, the anterior larger and overlapping the posterior, deciduous
Petals
(4)5(6), free or connate below, deliquescent, perigynous
Stamens
(4)5-many, arising at base of petals; filaments often hairy below
Ovary
half-inferior; ovules many on free-central placenta; style 2-9-fid
Fruit
a capsule, membranous, circumscissile at the hypanthium
Seeds
many, laterally compressed, reniform, shiny, often granulated; embryo peripheral
x = 9 (4, 5, 7, 8) (polyploidy)
Nomenclature:
Portulaca
L.
Linnaeus: 445 (1753)
Linnaeus: 204 (1754)
Adanson: 242 (1763)
Jussieu: 312 (1789)
Kunth: 71 (1823)
Candolle: 353 (1828)
Bentham: 156 (1862)
Sonder: 381 (1862)
Oliver: 148 (1868)
Pax: 59 (1889)
Franz: 17 (1908)
Burtt Davy: 165 (1926)
Poellnitz: 240 (1934)
Pax & Hoffmann: 246 (1934)
Wild: 364 (1961)
Walters: 114 (1964)
Geesink: 275 (1969)
Wild & Diniz: 1 (1973)
McNeill: 726 (1974)
Nyananyo: 399 (1987)
Carolin: 550 (1993)
Eliasson: 40 (1996)
Distribution & Notes:
Global
: Species ± 40 (Geesink 1969), cosmopolitan but mostly in warmer climates
Southern Africa
: Species 8, indigenous, mainly in arid areas, in all countries and provinces, except Western Cape; 1
species: *
Portulaca oleracea
L., is a very widespread weed of roadsides and cultivated waste lands
References:
ADANSON, M. 1763. Famille les Pourpiers.
Portulaceae
.
Familles des plantes
2. Vincent, Paris
BENTHAM, G. 1862.
Portulaceae
. In G. Bentham & J.D. Hooker,
Genera plantarum
1. Lovell Reeve & Co., London
BURTT DAVY, J. 1926.
Portulacaceae
.
A manual of the flowering plants and ferns of the Transvaal with Swaziland
1. Longmans, Green & Co., London
CANDOLLE, A.P. DE. 1828.
Portulaceae
.
Prodromus
3. Treuttel & Würtz, Paris
CAROLIN, R.C. 1993.
Portulacaceae
. In K. Kubitzki, J.G. Rohwer & V. Bittrich,
The families and genera of vascular plants - dicotyledons
2. Springer-Verlag, Berlin
ELIASSON, U.H. 1996.
Portulacaceae
.
Flora of Ecuador
55
FRANZ, E. 1908. Beiträge zur Kenntnis der Portulacaceen und Basellaceen.
Botanische Jahrbücher
42, Beiblatt 97
GEESINK, R. 1969. An account of the genus
Portulaca
in Indo-Australia and the Pacific (
Portulacaceae
).
Blumea
17
JUSSIEU, A.L. DE. 1789.
Portulaceae
, les Portulacées.
Genera plantarum secundum ordines naturales disposita
. Herissant & Barrois, Paris
KUNTH, C.S. 1823.
Portulaceae
. In A. de Humboldt, A. Bonpland & C.S. Kunth,
Nova genera et species plantarum
6. Libraria Graeco-Latino-Germanica, Paris
LINNAEUS, C. 1753.
Species plantarum
, edn 1. Laurentius Salvius, Stockholm
LINNAEUS, C. 1754.
Genera plantarum
, edn 5. Laurentius Salvius, Stockholm
MCNEILL, J. 1974. Synopsis of a revised classification of the
Portulacaceae
.
Taxon
23
NYANANYO, B.L. 1987. Taxonomic studies in the genus
Portulaca
L. (
Portulacaceae
).
Feddes Repertorium
98
OLIVER, D. 1868.
Portulaceae
.
Flora of tropical Africa
1
PAX, F. 1889.
Portulacaceae
.
Die natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien
3,1b
PAX, F. & HOFFMANN, K. 1934.
Portulacaceae
.
Die natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien
, edn 2,16c
POELLNITZ, K. VON. 1934. Versuch zu einer Monographie der Gattung
Portulaca
L.
Feddes Repertorium
37
WILD, H. & DINIZ, M.A. 1973.
Portulacaceae
.
Flora de Moçambique
21
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