“Let food be
thy medicine and medicine be thy food” - Hippocrates
Purslane (Portulaca oleracea)
All wild
plants must be regarded as inedible when not accompanied by an
appropriately qualified professional.
This page
is about purslane is also known as summer purslane. There is also
another plant called winter purslane or miners lettuce.
Purslane
grows wild throughout the world.
For
hundreds of years it was a food crop in India.
It was a
favourite food of Gandhi.
Purslane
contains significant amounts of oxalic acid and therefore ought not to
be eaten raw in quantity.
All parts
of the plant may be eaten, except for the roots.
Avoid a
plant called spurge which is poisonous. At a quick glance you might
think that it looks a bit
like purslane. Spurge may be growing next to purslane.
To
identify purslane, go with the process used by Green Deane. See the
video clip. His video says that the sap is NOT milky. Confusingly other
video clips talks about milky sap.
Commercially grown purslane has larger leaves, less taste and poorer
texture than wild purslane.
Links
From
Stalking the Wild Dandelion
A Guide to Wild Edible Plants for Parents
and Teachers to Use With Children.
A new, as yet unpublished, work-in-progress.
"Purslane comes from India, where it was a food crop centuries ago. It
was Gandhi's favorite food. Now it also grows across America, and around
the world."
National Vegetable Society
Purslane - for salads in winter or summer
R. Edwards, Cambridge
"The two types of purslane are quite distinct. Winter purslane or
miners' lettuce, Montia perfoliata, is a tough, cold resistant salading
for growing in the open to crop from October until spring. Summer
purslane, Portulaca oleracea, is a succulent, half hardy annual grown
for use throughout the summer"
