They're annuals. Get rid of them before they set seed. (pulling works.)

One possibility is that it came in on the tiller. (I'm assuming you had someone come in to do that for you?) But another thought is that seeds were already in the ground and that they were turned up with the tilling.

Some of the weedy species are edible and are known, (along with other unrelated), plants, as potherbs. Just make sure that you really have Portulaca rather than weedy Euphorbias or Polygonums, both of which can look similar and may have the same prostrate habits...

Mike

Thanks for the info. How will I know if it is the weed or the edible potherb????
Suzy

Suzy,

The only one I've ever tried was Portulaca oleracea... You'd have to look up any other species that you may find for palatability info... Below is a link for the most common species.

Mike

Here is a link that might be useful: Common Purslane

One common edible "weed" is Purslane, which is also called "wild portulaca."

There's info about it in this thread: http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/herbs/msg070758445653.html

Also here: http://www.plantanswers.com/12_mos_xeriscape_/june/Purslane.jpg

It's called "Dolly Parton's Pride," because it blooms 9 to 5. :-D

Be careful not to confuse it with Spotted Spurge - http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.biosurvey.ou.edu/okwild/images/spotspurge12.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.biosurvey.ou.edu/okwild/spotspurge1.html&h=373&w=500&sz=61&hl=en&start=2&tbnid=luZPmrl-3JG_kM:&tbnh=97&tbnw=130&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dspotted%2Bspurge%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D - which is poisonous.

I don't think they look that much alike, but sometimes a pic of one may look like the other.

Here's a slew of pics of Purslane, from google:

http://images.google.com/images?q=Purslane

Compare with these, of Spotted Spurge:

http://images.google.com/images?q=spotted%20spurge

Here is a link that might be useful: Purslane pic and info on food uses

Purslane is a hard weed to kill. If it lays on the ground and it rains, it will root again. Smaller ones are easier to kill by hoeing or pulling.

The best thing to do is remove it and put it in the trash.

Uh Oh. I just tossed a large quantity of this into my compost pile, along with lambs quarters, red root pigweed, etc. Will this make a problem? I shook the dirt off the roots pretty well.

You might be interested to know that purslane is extremely high in Omega 3 fatty acids, something that is very lacking in modern diets. This makes it probably the most healthful thing in a vegetable garden. Eat a lot of it. It's kind of citrusy, though large stems can get tough when they're old. I add it to salads.

I didn't have any purslane in my yard this summer until I watered a portion of my garden recently, and then a little bit showed up. It tends to want to die if I water too much, though. I.e., it seems to like drier soil than my tomatoes and marigolds do.

So far, it's hardly a problem, and I've never had a problem with it in Portland, OR. It always seems to get crowded out by the grass, clover, and other weeds.

But it's nice to know how nutritious it is.

Although purslane is edible, I don't think eating it is the best way to get rid of it. Its one of the warm weather annuals that seems to do best when it is hot and dry. It is amazing how quickly it can grow. I try to hand pull or hoe out the plants every week to make sure they don't bloom and produce more seeds. It does re-root and grow very easily too, so I try not to put the plants anywhere that is getting watered. You can compost it along with lambsquarters and pigweed, as long as you aren't throwing seed-producing plants on the pile. Turn the pile regularly to make sure the purslane doesn't continue to grow there.

i have a vegie garden that has been taken over by this weed i pull it out and it grows back ten times worse is there a spray that will kill it compleatly because round up only kills the surface of it and then it keeps coming back.

To control any "weed" one should know something about it. Purslane grows from both seed and stem cuttings, is fairly shallow rooted, and will fill in almost any bare soil that exists. Spraying some kind of poison will not control it since it will easily root from the numerous seeds it produces and from stem cuttings. Since this needs a fairly warm and moist soil to germinate, or grow from bits of a plant, properly mulching your garden is an easy way to keep it from growing, it the seeds or stems do not get access to the sun quickly they will die.
Since it is fairly shallow rooted yanking a plant that is growing out works very well as long as yo do not leave bits of the plant behind to root and grow. Birds do like the seeds this annual produces and they spred them far and wide.

Trifluralin, the active ingredient in Preen will stop the purslane seeds from growing without harming many garden plants and transplants. It is a good way to stop it before it starts in the spring, but check the labeled crops as it will damage or stop squash and corn among others--so you can't just use it on the entire garden, and don't exceed label rates or there could be some carry-over the next year if you rotate where you plant things.

Purslane is also very easy to control with shallow cultivation when it is very small, but once it gets a couple sets of leaves it will be strong enough to re-root or put out new roots.

If it gets beyond that, pulling and removing from the garden or covering to starve it of light is probably the only good way to go.

Since controlling "weeds" in planting beds is very simple if the planting beds are properly mulched (which also provides many other advantages) there is no reason to spend money on any "weed" control product, especially those that are harmful to the environment.

This is one of the most obnoxious weeds right along with bermuda grass, not the hybrid. It must be pulled immediately, do not allow it to flower. It loves water. Every teeny tiny leaf, stem or root can grow a whole new plant. Your mulch had better be very dense. This junk even survives in the Mojave Desert and surprise, when on vacation in Hawaii visiting Volcano Nat'l Park, guess what I came across near the steam vents, purslane aka portuluca.
DON'T put this in your compost pile!