Portulacaceae
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Authority
Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.
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Family
Portulacaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Family Description - Fls mostly perfect, hypogynous or (Portulaca) semi-epigynous, regular or seldom (spp. of Montia) slightly irregular; sep 2, or seldom (spp. of Lewisia) to 9, persistent or seldom (Talinum) deciduous; pet (2–)4–6 or seldom (spp. of Lewisia) more numerous (to ca 18), distinct or sometimes basally connate, mostly imbricate, often ephemeral; stamens most commonly as many as and opposite the pet, or sometimes (as in Portulaca) more numerous and then sometimes grouped into bundles; filaments free or sometimes basally adnate to the pet or to the short cor-tube; ovary unilocular (often showing vestiges of partitions at the base) mostly composed of 2–3 (to 9 in Portulaca) carpels with as many distinct styles, or seldom (as in Talinum) with a single (then usually lobed or cleft) style; ovules (1)2–many on a free-central or basal placenta; fr usually a loculicidal or circumscissile capsule; seeds commonly lenticular; embryo slender, dicotyledonous, peripheral, ± curved around the abundant perisperm; herbs (all ours) or rarely shrubs, producing betalains but not anthocyanins, often somewhat succulent; lvs simple, entire, opposite or alternate (or all basal); stipules scarious, or modified into tufts of hair, or wanting; fls solitary or more often in various sorts of cymose or racemose or head-like infls. 20/500.
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Common Names
The purslane family