purslane

plural purslanes · alternative purslain

1. uncountableusuallyAny of the family Portulacaceae (order Caryophyllales) of succulent plants.

   ASPARAGUS, cauliflowers, imperial Sileſia, royal and cabbage lettuces, burnet, purſlain, cucumbers, naſturtian flowers, peaſe and beans ſown in October, artichokes, ſcarlet ſtrawberries, and kidney beans.

   1767, A Lady [Hannah Glasse], The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Eaſy […] , page 326

   1 more example

   In messages shared with the Guardian, residents said they were down to one meal a day: soup without potato, made with courgette grown in what once were the flower boxes of the city’s apartment houses, sometimes with the addition of foraged purslane, an edible weed.

   2026 September 27, Peter Beaumont, Artem Mazhulin, “‘Hell on earth’: last residents eat weeds to survive in Russian-occupied Oleshky”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

   1. uncountableusuallycommon purslane or summer purslane (Portulaca oleracea), a widely-grown edible plant

      Synonyms: common purslane, garden purslane, little hogweed, pigweed, pusley, pussley, verdolaga

   2. uncountableusuallymoss-rose purslane, moss rose (Portulaca grandiflora)
2. Any of similar plants in other families in order Caryophyllales
   1. uncountableusuallywinter purslane, miner's lettuce (Claytonia perfoliata)
   2. uncountableusuallypink purslane (Claytonia sibirica)
   3. uncountableusuallyHalimione portulacoides
   4. uncountableusuallyHonckenya peploides
   5. uncountableusuallyshoreline purslane (Sesuvium portulacastrum)
   6. uncountableusuallypurslane tree (Portulacaria afra)