I’ve been paying more attention lately to urban wild plants, often what we would call weeds, which appear spontaneously in places like crack in sidewalk. One of the more prettiest, even without flowers, is purselane (Portulaca oleracea) and introduced mostly creeping plant with succulent-like stems and leaves.
Purslane and sidewalk
Purslane seems to be enjoying the weather this summer, looking plump even in the drought. Although I have never tried it and don’t advise foraging plants from the wild, my friend Phyllis routinely eats this plant when it appears in her vegetable gardens. It is apparently a tasty salad green. The fleshy stems and leave do not look appealing to me.
Purslane's fleshy leaves and stems. Small yellow flowers aren't open on this plant.
The last year or so I have noticed in increase in another prostrate weedy creeper – carpetweed (Mullago verticillata). Its common name is very apt. It has small white flowers and is decorative in its way, but a single plant can spread out over a large area quickly.
Part of my increasing appreciation of weeds comes from reading the very interesting book
Carpetweed and sidewalk
WEEDS: In Defense of Nature’s Most Unloved Plants By Richard )MabeyEcco/HarperCollins Publishers. 324 pp. $25.99 papperback $14.99). It chronicles the importance of weeds in England through history, from early agriculture to herbals to today’s urban settings. Many of these weeds are familiar to us in Central Indiana. I highly recommend this book.
Carpetweed lives up to its name
