Recently I saw a beautiful flowering plant at Target’s garden center and recognize the leaves right away. Growing up , I remember seeing these plants grow all over our backyard. Except these had more colorful and pretty flowers.
Photo of “Purslane: Portulaca Umbraticola”.
My dad was the one who first told me these are edible herbs. They are really a succulent herb as the leaves are fleshy. Dad said purslane are great for joint health too. I also remember my dad and I collecting the purslane from the yard. We gave them to mom to wash and she prepared them for dinner. We had steamed purslane with grilled meat and hot sauce. I thought the purslane was a bit slimy (but not strange slime). It was actually very good. It had a lemony-tart taste and the leaves were fleshy. But since then, I really haven’t had any purslane at all.
This is the type of purslane we had for dinner. They are considered to be weeds. Photo from Calfora.net
Purslane is known throughout most of the world as both a beneficial and tasty plant. And it can be eaten raw too. But in the U.S., they consider it a weed and appropriately named it “pigweed” or “hogweed”. I think that is just too bad! In California, they also consider it an invasive plant. I really don’t think it’s a problem, as you can always pull them out once it gets out of control. And it’s not full of spike or has strange smells either. Just bring on some hungry goats to clear them out!
