Trianthema portulacastrum L.

Desert Horse Purslane

Herb

Annual

Vascular

Desert Horse Purslane is an introduced succulent annual in the Ice-Plant family (Aizoaceae). It is native to desert areas of the western United States south through Central and South America and in Africa. In Alabama in has been collected in urban areas and in the Black Belt region. Desert Horse Purslane grows along railroad tracks, in cracks in pavement, in fallow fields, and in waste areas. It is an annual with a tap root. Stems are trailing, succulent, red or green in color, and glabrous except for lines of hairs near the leaf petioles. Leaves are alternate, petiolate, elliptic to orbiculate in outline, succulent, and glabrous. Flowers are solitary and sessile in the axils of the leaves. The flowers lack petals but the tips of the sepals are purple in color and petal-like. The fruit is a cylindrical, corky capsule. The bottom portion of the capsule is embedded in the stem. The apical portion of the capsule contains a single seed and when detached it is carried away in floods. The basal portion of the capsule remains attached to the remnants of the parent plant and the seed are released as it decays. Desert Horse Purslane is allelopathic—releasing chemicals than inhibit the germination or growth of other plants. Desert Horse Purslane contains the alkaloid trianthemine and the steroid ecdysterone, and has been used in herbal medicine.—A. Diamond

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Not Native FACW (NWPL) FACW (DEP)

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