Portulaca halimoides

Portulaca halimoides
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
(unranked): Angiosperms
(unranked): Eudicots
(unranked): Core eudicots
Order: Caryophyllales
Family: Portulacaceae
Genus: Portulaca
Species: P. halimoides
Binomial name
Portulaca halimoides
L.
Synonyms

Portulaca parvula

Portulaca halimoides is a species of purslane known by the common name silkcotton purslane. It is native to the deserts of the southwestern United States and northern Mexico, as well as parts of Central and South America. It is a fleshy annual herb producing a branching stem spreading to a maximum length around 25 centimeters. It is often pink or red in color and there are strands of woolly hairlike trichomes at nodes along the stem and within the inflorescence. The thick, cylindrical, blunt-tipped leaves are up to 2 centimeters in length and green to red in color. Flowers occur in clusters of up to 10 at the tips of the stem branches. Each is a few millimeters wide with yellow petals which are sometimes hidden under the two fused, fleshy red sepals. The fruit is a tiny capsule which contains several seeds. The grainlike seeds may be black, grayish, or silvery in color.

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This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Friday, October 29, 2010. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.