Purslane
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Does anyone know if there’s anything else that Purslane (Portulaca oleracea) can be mistaken for? My mom swears there’s something toxic that resembles it, but she can’t put her finger on what it might be. I have an absolute *bumper* crop of what I think it purslane in my garden (but I’m not 100% sure), and it’s actually something I like eating, but she’s got me spooked now.
It pains me to toss it out into the woods when I could be tossing it back with a smattering of green garlic!!
Purslane is really high in Omega-3 fatty acids too! As far as I know there is nothing poisonous that is similar to purslane. In fact Wildman Steve Brill considers purslane to be one of the easiest wild plants to ID. ‘Keying out’ (the process of following a taxonomic key) might give you the confidence to chow down. The University of Illinois has a simple key that filters out the possible plant choices as you answer the questions. Answer what questions you can on the left and you should end up with Purslane as the only (or one of the only) plants left on the right.
I also didn’t know how good purslane is for the soil. I can’t wait to tell my neighbor (who loves to eat purslane) that she no longer has to weed any of it out of our community garden as it is improving the soil!
This post I did not long ago on weed ID and so on links to a lot of excellent and very comprehensive sites that profile each plant considered a weed in a particular region. Really helpful reference.
https://awaytogarden.com/what-weed-is-it-putting-names-to-pesky-plants
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