Alexa - that was me that started the thread on purslane as it was taking over my hostas!

That looks like the succulant purslane I have growing in my beds. I've been eating it all summer and I love it. I don't know why you couldn't over winter it. But if it has seeds or flowers throw a couple in one area of your garden. If it can thrive in Minnesota I'm sure you can grow it. There is a plant that looks just like it but the leaves are not plump (succelant) like purslane. That is not good to eat. Purslane can be invasive in the lawn if you your lawn is not very dense. I got rid of the stuff in my lawn (weed-b-gone) but am letting the stuff in the beds go rampant. My friend the chef stops by on occassion and takes whatever he wants and I eat the rest!

Was it Canary Bird that had the one with orange flowers? I do not think hers was edible. Yours is labeled an annual?

Maybe I should just pack some up and send it to you next spring! Then you can have beautiful salads and garnishes all summer.

They are definitely fat juicy succulent leaves, but I am hesitant to taste it. They just came home today and Gawd only knows what they may have been sprayed with at the garden center. That said, I'm not sure I want rampant self-seeders either, which is why I was wondering if they may winter over in the pots in my FL room. Like Creeping jenny, a little is really nice, more than that is a headache!

Alexa

This does pull up easily - like wild violets - shallow roots.

If mine gets out of control again I will just cut off the flowers.......right after I get caught up on the weeds. :-)

What you have is a purslane bred as an ornamental. It certainly isn't the wild variety nor is it likely to be a food variety. Whether it is suitable for food depends on two questions:

a) How closely is it related to either the wild purslane which grows in gardens and is often eaten or to the purslane which is cultivated for food? My guess is that it is OK in this regard, but I don't know.

b) As an ornamental plant, has it been treated with pesticides, especially systemic ones? I would feel safe in nibbling on it to decide on question a. Question b makes me nervous.

Jim

I don't know if it's the edible type or not, it doesn't look like the stuff I have in the garden, which IS edible, and mine never flowers. Maybe I yank it up too quickly...

It does have very shallow roots and is easy to pull, but if you don't toss it out of the garden, it'll just re-root and there it is again!

Here's the stuff that is growing by my back patio door:

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it gets bigger than that, but the quarter is for size comparison. You can see that the leaves are nearly flat, not nearly as thick as the quarter:

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it'll sure grow anywhere, though.

Annie

Oh yeah...it grows all over the place here, but I have never attempted to add it to a salad or any other dish. I'm just not sure if the purslane that I pull out from the cracks in my sidewalk here is the edible variety....

Now, if we could only eat Creeping Charlie.....I could supply the entire upper Midwest!

Linda

Down here in FL, we call your "creeping charlie" our "dollar weed". It is invasive and defies any effort to get ride of it. When we went to St Louis Botantial Gardens, they were planting it in their climatron. We asked the ladies if they knew what they were doing, they cheerfully said yes they did. Dumb bunnies! It's invasive, dude!

I hate purslane!! may be edible but it seeds like mad....I have the same stuff that Annie has and it just looks so yukky spreading all over....and when you pull it the stems are sort of juicy....and it can lie upside down on the driveway in the burning sun for a week and if it rains it turns all plump and green and starts to grow!!
EWWW!
Nope...

those pictures-- around here it's sold as portulaca (moss rose) Jade plants in the same family. I've never had any reseed. Never thought of eating any of the varieties I've seen.
kay

Thanks for posting the pics of purslane, Alexa. I've never encountered it here on the frosty northern prairies. However, Creeping Charlie is my all-time favourite invasive. It is one of the few things that will overwinter in my yard (besides dandelions). I like to keep a few captive colonies, since it is the earliest green thing to emerge. It is shallow rooted, so I can clear it out of any flower beds that get too lush with it. I transplant it into hanging baskets in the summer for some fast growing trailing foliage.

"...mine never flowers. Maybe I yank it up too quickly..."

Maybe you do, Annie. I'm sure you take good care of your garden. But maybe you just don't notice the flowers. They are tiny and inconspicuous and the seed pods even more so. I rarely see the flowers but they must be making seed because I have new plants every year.

Purslane takes some getting used to as a food. It has a texture different from more familiar foods. Also, if it wasn't so abundant it might be more appreciated.

Jim

I have seen the wild weed purslane flower, but as Jim says, they are small and inconspicuous (sp?). Being the bad gardener that I am, my weeds often go to flower stage and more. It looks like what you brought home Alexa has been bred for larger flowers, who knows how it was bred, so who knows if it is edible or not. Probably not poisonous, but also probably not good tasting, if I extrapolate from how various other ornamental things go in the taste department. Also who knows what pesticide residues are on it. If you want the culinary experience of eating purslane, I suggest you just let your garden go to rot and ruin for a while like mine, or visit someone like me and offer to weed, lol!

come to think of it, I HAVE been pulling some weed (a weed is anything that grows where I do not want it to grow) that looks a lot like moss rose on a diet ... maybe that was Purslane... Like Annie, I've never seen a bloom.

Kay

Thanks for all the info. I think I will try to keep the pots going and maybe take a cutting of the red one (I really like the look of it) for next year. I will probably pass on the tasting end.... at least until I root a cutting or two and try new growth that I know hasn't been sprayed.

Interesting stuff though.....

Thanks again!

Alexa

I actually really like purslane, I add it to cole slaw and salads, but I don't like it as well cooked. I also eat lamb's quarter raw, it tastes kind of like spinach.

I'll have to watch for blossoms, maybe I shouldn't weed so diligently, LOL. I know the stuff can grow right up through a couple of layers of newspaper and a 4 inch layer of alfalfa mulch!

Now, you want to talk about persistent, I have an aloe plant that grew and grew. It sent up a flower shoot. It grew down over the side of the very large pot and across the floor. It grew until the pot tipped over. I finally got disgusted and cut it off at "ground" level and tossed it into the backyard, since it was also sending up new plants.

Yesterday I walked out and the darned thing had rooted right in the back yard where I'd tossed it and is sending up a flower shoot. Sheesh, it's nearly as bad as the yucca, which I poured Round Up directly on as a last resort. I'm out of Round Up and the yucca is sending up new plants too....

In my new yard, I'm only growing things I can eat! If Elery wants "landscaping" he can deal with it...

Annie

Kayskats, be careful, there are a lot of "look alike" plants out there, don't eat anything unless you know for sure what it is. The reason I say this is because I have a weed known as "Spurge" growing amongst my portulaca, it is also a common garden weed and it is not edible. It has a milky white sap, and it's common name "spurge" comes from the root word "purge." Need I say more about why not to eat it?! Below is a link to a pretty good photo. It has a similar mat-like growing habit to purslane, and the leaves are a similar shape, but it is not succulent like purslane.

Here is a link that might be useful: Prostrate spurge

lpink - I have that same weed. It's a purslane "look-a-like" except a little smaller and not a succulant. My chef friend pointed it out and said it was not edible.

"...I add it to cole slaw..."

Thanks for that idea. I never wanted to add it to a tossed salad. It didn't seem to belong there. Slaw sounds like a good use. So far, I've only nibbled on purslane while working in the garden.

"I also eat lamb's quarter raw, it tastes kind of like spinach."

I like it cooked. It tastes EXACTLY like spinach (which is very close botanically).

"In my new yard, I'm only growing things I can eat!"

IOW, edible landscaping.

Jim

lpinkmountain, not to worry. I am definitely NOT a forager and anything akin to 'purge' will not come near my mouth.
kay

Even with the pictures of the purslane I was not sure what everyone was talking about. Now that someone has called it Moss Rose I can't wait to try it as food. I don't recall seeing it grow wild here. I have seen it for sale in hanging baskets.

Since I'm not up on what non-ornamental plants are called and are edible I'm always very cautious about eating anything that I'm not sure of.

Alexa - if you change your mind and want to try the edible kind, the Purslane Santa could get a box of it in the mail next spring!

T

Alexa, I have to comment on the HUGE phalaenopsis in your pictures. It's magnificent. Give it cool temperature in January and it will have loads of bloom later on.

Jim

LOL Jim! That photo got stuck in the middle. Sorry!

Yep - it came home in the same rescue group - it was on clearance for $3.00 and actually had a really nice root system. No signs of rot. It is spiking again, so it may bloom sooner. Orchids are a gardeners dream. I have several phals, a few encyclias, and a couple of hard cane dendrobiums that keep blooming and keep me going all winter when the garden is yucky, cold and sleeping.

Alexa