---

CLASSIFICATION

ORDER	: Caryophyllales
FAMILY	: Portulacaceae
GENUS	: Portulaca L.
SPECIES	: quadrifida L.
BOTANICAL NAME	: Portulaca quadrifida L.
SYNONYMS	: ---
COMMON NAME	: Chicken weed
TAMIL NAME	: Pasali keerai.
HINDI NAME	: ---

PLANT DESCRIPTION

HABIT :  A small, annual, diffuse, herb with filiform glabrous stem, rooting at the base.

LEAVES :  Fleshy, ovate, acute, opposite, 0.25-0.5 inch long, stipules a ring of silvery hairs, petioles short.

FLOWERS :  Solitary, terminal almost sessile, surrounded by silvery hairs and an involucre of 4 leaves. Sepals 2, oblong. Petals 4, yellow, oblong-obovate. Stamens 8. Ovary semi-inferior, 1-celled, style slender, 4-fid.

FRUITS :  Conical, pyxidium. Seeds minute.

FLOWERING AND FRUITING TIME :  November

MEDICINAL USES

It is used as a vegetable and also used for various curative purposes.

It is said to be useful in asthma, cough, urinary discharges, inflammations and ulcers.

Portulaca oleracea has been used as a folk medicine in many countries, acting as a febrifuge, antiseptic, vermifuge, and so forth

IMAGES

Print this page