Gardeners that hear how much I love purslane are not just shocked but they think I'm crazy! Until I share the whole story with them. There are two classes of purslane: weed and ornamental.

This thread is dealing with the weed purslane, which is also called common purslane. It spreads and cause all sorts of trouble in gardens and on farms. It is the most delicious tasting but the culprit is truly invasive. When you till purslane, it creates the seeds to scatter and sow themselves everywhere. Your best bet in getting rid of it is to eat it or sell it at farmers markets. In certain markets, they sell out of it because it's a favorite ingredient in making omelets, soups and salads. ***Make sure you do not eat spurge by accident. It looks similar but is NOT Edible.

Purslane has a thick branch that is generally a reddish color and the size of cables for your printer. Spurge is floppier, at least in Phoenix. and I've never seen a flower on it.

The weed purslane has teeny yellow flowers tucked in between the leaves. It's formal name is Portulaca Oleracea.

Here is another view of the weed purslane. If any of you have photos of this purslane, please share them with us.

This is a photo of spurge!

DO NOT EAT

When wild purslane came up on a slope of the property last year, it did good...until the deer ate it. I looked for it in the summer and couldn't even find any bare stems left. But the deer were literally starving, so I didn't mind. I had Missouri Primrose coming up back there also last spring and they ate it several times until I wasn't sure it there there was any alive. I piled some tree limbs over where it was and in fall it came back.

ah, I'd share with the deer too.

ah, I'd share with the deer too.

But where can you get it when it's not growing, I wonder? It's been a bad winter here. The survival of the plant in the hanging basket is not known yet, although I have hope. Got to start some purslane from seed!
http://www.NaturalNews.com/027...

ditto Linda...Mine in the basket looks lame. I start calling nurseries in April, bugging them to get some in.

Well, at last! I happened to be thinking about plants today in town, so stopped at a nursery. And found 3 colors of the Rio kind!
http://msucares.com/news/print...

WOW! Those are the hardest to find too! CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!

Yes, and I have them inside the house. It froze last night. I'll look for pots in which to repot them....they appear to be 6" plants.

Well my Purslane weed looks about the same as my Rio to me they are coming up with my flowers because I let them reseed last year and will have to wait until they bloom to tell which is which I know the wild Purslane is on the move now, I hate that because it's growing like crazy so maybe it is the wild one? Will they choke my other plants out?

Only one of my pots of the pink Rio is coming back the yellow didn't. Last year was the first year for me to have the Rio's they are so pretty and bright!

What is the other color you got Linda, they only had the two colors at our nursery I checked the link out and had no idea they had so many colors but then I'm new to Purslane other than the weed of course.

Lea

Lebug,
when you figure out which one is the weed eat it , It is very good and highly nutritious.
I had a friend this year who offered to buy some from me and she is a nutrition counselor.She recommends it to her clients but can't find it here, in mid America, seems us farm folk ''just'' consider it a weed.

Lea, glad you're here! I bought some pure white purslane one year, never to be found again. It was amazing!
It sounds like you have the wild one if there aren't any blooms.

But don't eat spurge....cough cough cough! We have spurge growing on the grass right now and it will take over. YUCK!

Want to read a short article on Purslane? It's here on All things Plants. There's a recipe using purslane there too.

http://garden.org/articles/vie...

Cinda Hi I read about Purslane a few years back and isn't there another weed that looks like Purslane and is easy to get confused with them? Seems like it was the weed Purslane...

I went out and looked again and compared the Purslane coming up where I thought it had reseeded and they all look like what is coming up in my other beds it seems to be leggier than the decorative one but that one is just coming up so I need to see how it grows compared to the ones in my beds.

I haven't had so much of it coming up in my beds before must be all the rain that we had.

Nope won't eat the spurge I have it coming up everywhere too!

Thanks for the link Boo I'll go check it out I was getting ready to check the articles out this morning then my son begged for the computer

I have one rose-colored, one yellow and one white Rio. I was supposed to have an apricot, but it turned out to be the white one!

Lea, it sounds exactly like spurge to me. The very bad weed.

Boopaints said:This is a photo of spurge, DO NOT EAT IT!

This is SPURGE! (hate it)