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.
From Wikipedia, under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Is it poisonous?
We have no record of Desert Portulaca being toxic, poisonous or venomous. That is not proof that it is safe. Never eat, touch or handle a wild plant, mushroom or animal on the strength of an identification; ask someone qualified.
Easily confused with
Classification
- Kingdom
- Plantae
- Phylum
- Tracheophyta
- Class
- Magnoliopsida
- Order
- Caryophyllales
- Family
- Portulacaceae
- Genus
- Portulaca
- Species
- Portulaca halimoides
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