Portulaca Quadrifida seed chickenweed seed

LATIN NAME: Portulaca quadrifida

COMMON NAME: Chickenweed

The chickenweed spreads its small, fleshy, oval leaves and the tiny, yellow, five-petalled flowers, and the whole plant carries the fine, low, carpet-like look of the warm garden. The low, spreading, creeping, perennial plant carries the small, fleshy, oval, green leaves in the small, opposite pairs along the slender, creeping stems which root at the nodes and the tiny, yellow, five-petalled flowers in the small clusters through the warm season, one of the fine, neat sights of the warm garden, drawing the bees, to be followed by the tiny, round capsules. The young shoots have a very long record as the fine, fresh greens of the warm tables, and the plant is a fine, historic presence of the warm garden. It is a plant of the open, sunny, deep, moist, well-drained ground.

Scientific Research & Plant Biotechnology

The chickenweed is a historic subject of the plant science, and the creeping stems keep showing up in the work on the low spreading plants. The way the small, fleshy, oval, green leaves in the small, opposite pairs along the slender, creeping stems form the fine, carpet-like mats has been studied at length, and it keeps appearing in the studies of the low spreading plants, the five-petalled flowers and the members of the purslane family. The rooting nodes and the low habit have also made it a fine study plant, and the chickenweed is a regular subject of the work on the creeping stems of the warm world.

Ecological & Economic Value & Wide Applications

The chickenweed is a fine, neat plant of the warm garden and the study collection. The tiny, yellow, five-petalled flowers in the small clusters open through the warm season, one of the fine, neat sights of the warm garden, drawing the bees, and the small, fleshy, oval, green leaves in the small, opposite pairs along the slender, creeping stems carry the fine, low, carpet-like look of the old gardens, while the young shoots have a very long record as the fine, fresh greens of the warm tables, the young shoots coming to the salads and the warm plates of the old kitchens, to be followed by the tiny, round capsules. It is one of the fine choices for the ground cover, the pot and the study collection, and it has been written up in the culinary and the botanical papers for the creeping stems and the fresh greens. It is a fine, neat plant of the open, sunny, deep, moist, well-drained garden.

Give the young plants the deep, moist bed, and the neat mats will spread over the warm months.

To grow the chickenweed from seed, sow the tiny, black seeds over the surface of the pot of fine, sandy soil, without covering them, keep the pot in a bright, open spot and water gently, then set the young plants out in the open ground. The seedlings come through within a couple of weeks and grow on fast. With the sun and the deep, moist, well-drained ground, the neat mats will spread over the warm months.

Nome scientifico: Portulaca quadrifida Originaria dell’Africa ma ampiamente diffusa nelle regioni tropicali del Vecchio Mondo, è una pianta erbacea annuale a vita breve con steli teneri. Le sue foglie e i giovani germogli sono gustosi e commestibili sia crudi che cotti. Conosciuta per le sue numerose proprietà curative.