{"id":197,"date":"2012-08-01T11:53:57","date_gmt":"2012-08-01T15:53:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/indianaplants\/?p=197"},"modified":"2012-08-01T11:53:57","modified_gmt":"2012-08-01T15:53:57","slug":"sidewalk-weeds-in-the-hot-dry-summer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/indianaplants\/2012\/08\/01\/sidewalk-weeds-in-the-hot-dry-summer\/","title":{"rendered":"Sidewalk Weeds in the Hot Dry Summer"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve been paying more attention lately to urban wild plants, often what we would call weeds, which appear spontaneously in places like crack in sidewalk.\u00a0 One of the more prettiest, even without flowers, \u00a0is purselane (Portulaca oleracea<\/em>) and introduced mostly creeping plant with succulent-like stems and leaves.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Purslane and sidewalk<\/p><\/div>\n

Purslane seems to be enjoying the weather this summer, looking plump even in the drought.\u00a0 Although I have never tried it and don\u2019t advise foraging plants from the wild, my friend Phyllis routinely eats this plant when it appears in her vegetable gardens.\u00a0 It is apparently a tasty salad green.\u00a0 The fleshy stems and leave do not look appealing to me.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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Purslane's fleshy leaves and stems. Small yellow flowers aren't open on this plant.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The last year or so I have noticed in increase in another prostrate weedy creeper \u2013 carpetweed (Mullago verticillata<\/em>).\u00a0 Its common name is very apt.\u00a0 It has small white flowers and is decorative in its way, but a single plant can spread out over a large area quickly.<\/p>\n

Part of my increasing appreciation of weeds comes from reading the very interesting book<\/p>\n

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Carpetweed and sidewalk<\/p><\/div>\n

WEEDS: In Defense of Nature\u2019s Most Unloved Plants<\/span> <\/strong>By Richard )MabeyEcco\/HarperCollins Publishers. 324 pp. $25.99 papperback $14.99).\u00a0 It chronicles the importance of weeds in England through history, from early agriculture to herbals to today\u2019s urban settings.\u00a0 Many of these weeds are familiar to us in Central Indiana.\u00a0 I highly recommend this book.<\/p>\n

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Carpetweed lives up to its name<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve been paying more attention lately to urban wild plants, often what we would call weeds, which appear spontaneously in places like crack in sidewalk.\u00a0 One of the more prettiest, even without flowers, \u00a0is purselane (Portulaca oleracea) and introduced mostly … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":679,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/indianaplants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/indianaplants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/indianaplants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/indianaplants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/679"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/indianaplants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/indianaplants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":211,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/indianaplants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197\/revisions\/211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/indianaplants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/indianaplants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/indianaplants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}