It is Purslane, Portulaca oleracea. It’s generally considered a weed but it’s an edible and nutritious one.

It's purslane, a common garden weed. It self sows prolifically, but is also edible and quite healthy--high in Omega 3s.

its a freaking prolific reseeding nightmare weed..

and i dont eat my weeds.. i kill them with a vengeance unknown to mankind.. dirty rotten waste of mother earths precious resources ...

let me guess. fry it in some butter and garlic. and ohhh its so wonderful.. yeah.. so is my boot with enough butter and garlic ...

ken

Most of what we call 'weeds' are a far cry from being a "dirty rotten waste of mother earths precious resources"!! ALL plants serve a purpose and purslane is no exception. It is attractive to pollinators, the seeds appeal to birds and other wildlife and livestock feed on the foliage. It is also extremely nutritious.

The value of purslane.

No, don’t fry it. Put the top in a salad and put the root on the compost heap If you don't want it. No need for the hyperbole, Ken, It’s only a plant. And one for which many people buy seed to sow in their vegetable gardens. Seems to me that you hate pretty much everything that isn’t a hosta or a conifer.

You guys make me laugh!

Floral, lacyvail, and gardengal, I do appreciate all your knowledge on this plant, I don’t think my friend will eat it. On the other hand, knowing ken often has a STRONG opinion about matters, I also appreciate his knowledge and straight forward matters. I am glad the plant is very useful to many, but my friend I fear will side with ken.

Thanks you all for an entertaining thread!

debr

Hmm, something tells me ken has a purslane problem in his garden lol.....

When I sold bouquets at the farmers market I partnered with a woman who sold lettuces and greens, and would help her on the farm. We seriously considered selling purslane since we were always pulling it. We never got around to it, but darned if a few years later at a different market what did I see for sale but purslane? Made me wish we had jumped on the bandwagon earlier lol. That being said, I have yet to try eating it myself!

:)

Dee

P.S. That and lambs quarters (which I DID nibble on once to taste). We considered making a salad mix with purslane and lambsquarters!

This is one time that I agree wholehartedly with Ken. It is a nasty WEED that I can't get rid of. I have to use the strength for the big weeds to even faze it. I know, some people use it for flowers; even my daughters have some potted up in Texas. I've been fighting it for 27 years. I know; to each his own. Enjoy it in your garden, but not in mine. Plant it in my vegetable garden ? Not in your life. It planted there by itself and I can't get rid of it.

I wouldn't mind having purslane (Portulaca oleracea) pop up in my garden. It makes a good addition to salads, and even though a weed, it's vastly easier to pull out than other edible weeds (wild violets for instance). There is also a gold-leafed purslane variety.

https://hort.extension.wisc.edu/articles/common-purslane-portulaca-oleracea/

Well....funny thread for sure. Ken in his usual entertaining way, has one point of view. I'm with the other side of the issue. Weeds are a fact of life, that you have to account for. I plant close enough together, I mulch a LOT and I try to keep the weeding to a minimum. Still, you do get these perennial weeds that you will never get rid of but if you are going to get them, might as well have the kind that are useful.

I had this book out of the library a year or two ago. Fascinating and based on current research about plant nutrition. Hey, if you found yourself in circumstances you didn't anticipate and needed some easy, inexpensive nutritious food, nice to know what is what. I believe they mention purslane.

Eating on the Wild Side

Is that a photo of Purslane, above? I always thought it was like an arugula or a lettuce. I'll have to give it a taste, I have plenty of it in the garden.

When I was sick with cancer and felt I only had a short time left, the weeds became precious to me and I knew I would miss them terribly. They had life in there veins, and I shared their life force, a Miracle. Holocaust victims in camps became very attached and appreciative to the dandelions and other few weeds which grew in their surroundings. It seems to be a macho thing to hate weeds and want to kill them. It's male dominance obeying the command to have dominion over all life that isn't human. From the book of fables and contradictions, chapter 1. Why do people choose to let living plants rob them of enjoying life? How many years of life do people spend unhappily because they can't get every last bit of Creeping Charlie or purslane out of their lawns and gardens? Life is a miracle and it's a miracle that life can sprout from the bare earth, even weeds are a miracle. Enough of the macho, kill destroy, attitude. I've noticed that the more knowledge people gain about plants, the less they complain about weeds. Those weeds might end up being a cure for some terminal disease in the future.