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Harmless🍽️ Edible

🌱 Common purslane

Portulaca oleracea · Portulacaceae

🫒 Mediterranean
🧠 To remember it“Juicy purslane never bleeds white” — if it oozes a milky latex when snapped, it's not purslane, put it down.
Common purslane — Portulaca oleracea

🔍 Identify it without mistakes

Small, fleshy, creeping annual plant with reddish stems spreading in a star pattern flat on the ground. Leaves are alternate or opposite, spoon-shaped, thick, shiny, and water-filled. Small yellow flowers open only in full sun and close quickly. Grows in dense colonies forming a low mat, especially in cultivated fields and disturbed soils.

  1. fleshy, reddish stems spreading flat on the ground in a star shape
  2. thick, shiny, spoon-shaped leaves packed with water
  3. small 5-petaled yellow flower open only in direct sunlight
  4. crunchy and juicy texture when chewed
Size10-40 cm in diameter, creeping, a few cm high
FloweringJune-September
Habitatdisturbed soils, vegetable gardens, dry garrigue, and pavement cracks; very common all around the Mediterranean basin and far beyond

⚠️ Not to be confused with

Petty spurge (Euphorbia peplus)spurge is toxic and irritating, while purslane is edible

To tell them apart: spurge oozes a milky white latex when you snap the stem, which purslane never does; its leaves are thinner and not fleshy

🍽️ Eating it

Partsstems and leaves
SeasonJune-September
Tastecrunchy, slightly tangy and salty, with lemony notes

Preparation : raw in salads or briefly cooked like spinach; excellent in soups for its mild thickening power (mucilage)

16kcalEnergy
1.3gProtein
0.1gFat
3.4gCarbs
21mgVitamin C
2mgIron
65mgCalcium

USDA FoodData Central, raw purslane, per 100 g

🪓 Other bushcraft uses

  • one of the richest land-plant sources of omega-3 fatty acids (alpha-linolenic acid), documented by multiple nutritional studies
Sources (2)

No entry replaces a certain identification in the field, or medical advice. When in doubt: don't eat it. If ingestion is suspected: poison control or 112/911.