Re sassafras: I'm going to have to look it up to see what it looks like. Aren't the ground up leaves file powder, like what they use to thicken gumbo and such? For some reason, I have a feeling it doesn't grow out here in my area, but who knows. I really wish we had some foraging classes or something. I would have so much fun walking around looking for things to eat! I have a big ugly, thistle-y looking weed out back that I think is edible, but I'm not chancing it because I am entirely unsure, lol. Purslane and pineapple weed is about all I am positive I'm able to identify now.

Purslane is easy to kill with hoeing/tillage when it is a seedling up to a couple leaves. Once it gets bigger, it seems to survive off the moisture in the stems and leaves long enough to re-root, so bigger plants are very hard to kill unless they are fully buried and get no light or removed from the garden. Pre-emergent weed killers can do an excellent job. Look for a weed killer that contains trifluralin as an active ingredient and shallowly incorporate it into the soil before the purslane gets started in the spring. It won't hurt perennials. It may do some root pruning on transplanted annuals, and gets along well with some garden vegetables such as legumes, potatoes, onions, tomatoes, peppers, and cabbage family. It will prevent squash family from germinating and growing, and will damage corn roots. So, you just have to be careful where you use it. If used at the correct rate, it will not linger into the next year. I like to spray it where I plant my peppers and tomatoes after transplanting as it provides season long control. In a lawn, broadleaf herbicides such as 2,4-D and dicamba will do a good job killing it without hurting the grass.

In a previous garden, there was a healthy population of both lamb's quarter and wild amaranth (pigweed). Didn't like either of them raw, but cooked together as pot herbs & seasoned with butter and salt, they were very pleasant. Normally I would just harvest them as young plants while weeding; but I let an amaranth plant go & just kept harvesting the young tips. It went most of the summer before it started going to seed & I had to pull it. Lamb's quarter & pigweed make only rare appearance in my present gardens. My worst weeds now are mostly inedible: crab grass, knot weed, mallow, ground cherry (plant them once & have them forever) and creeping jenny. After 2 years when the garden was fallow & could not be cultivated, purslane went to seed - and I have it EVERYWHERE. Last year was so bad in my rural garden that I had to mow between rows - and it clogged the mower! We made a point of not letting it go to seed, and it is more manageable this year. Purslane is very nutritious eaten as a vegetable, but I'm not fond of the flavor. I wonder, has anyone ever tried juicing it? It looks succulent enough to provide juice, which could then be mixed with other juices to make it more palatable.

If you are going to use images for comparison, please do not just use a search. The pics could come from pinterest, flickr, or any other site where they may or may not be labeled correctly. The presence of white sap would negate all Portulaca species (and point to Euphorbia.) Some reliable pics for comparison: Purslane, Portulaca oleracea: https://garden.org/plants/view/78483/Purslane-Portulaca-oleracea/ Ornamental purslane, P. umbraticola: https://garden.org/plants/view/84367/Wingpod-Purslane-Portulaca-umbraticola/ If you are still uncertain, please try to add a pic.