Portulaca oleracea / [Species detail] / Plant Atlas

Characteristics

Classification

Dicots

Family

PORTULACACEAE

Genus

Portulaca

Species

Portulaca oleracea L.

Common Name

LITTLE HOGWEED

Growth Habit

C Value

Plant Notes

Though sometimes considered non-native, the available evidence of its pre-Columbian presence in the Americas (Gray & Trumbull 1883a, 1883b:138; Byrne & McAndrews 1975) favors its classification as native. Among leaves, it has one of the richest known sources of a-linolenic acid, an omega-3 fatty acid (Simopoulos & Salem 1986; Omara-Alwala et al. 1991; Simopoulos et al. 1992; Liu et al. 2000).

Status

Native FACU (NWPL)

** Not applicable or data not available.