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Portulaca halimoides; photograph (c) Stan Shebs, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) CC BY-SA(c) Stan Shebs, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · observed growing wild · 2007-10-09

Portulaca halimoides L.

Silk-cotton purslane; Desert Portulaca; Sinkerleaf purslane

Portulacaceae · Colorado, Oklahoma +31

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Portulaca halimoides, photograph (c) Jo Roberts, some rights reserved (CC BY)Portulaca halimoides, photograph (c) Jo Roberts, some rights reserved (CC BY)Portulaca halimoides, photograph (c) Stan Shebs, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Portulaca halimoides, photograph (c) Stan Shebs, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Portulaca halimoides, photograph (c) Stan Shebs, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Portulaca halimoides, photograph (c) Jose Manuel Ramos Martinez, some rights reserved (CC BY) 75 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-4.9°C
Record low -13.2 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
32°C
Jul at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
373mm
5 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
22–52DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
A rainy season, December to February and July to October, neither the cool nor the warm half of the year. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Portulaca halimoides is a species of purslane known by the common name silkcotton purslane. It is native to the deserts of the southwestern United States and northern Mexico, as well as parts of Central and South America. It is a fleshy annual herb producing a branching stem spreading to a maximum length around 25 centimeters. It is often pink or red in color and there are strands of woolly hairlike trichomes at nodes along the stem and within the inflorescence. More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Portulaca halimoides", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Portulaca

Portulaca is a genus of flowering plants in the family Portulacaceae, and is the type genus of the family. With over 100 species, it is found generally in the tropics and warm temperate regions. Portulacas are also known as the purslanes.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Portulaca", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a rainy season with no name: 70% of the median year's rain (243 mm of 331 mm) falls in December to February and July to October, whose mean temperature, 16.5 °C, is within half a degree of the year's, 17.0 °C, so it is neither the cooler nor the warmer part of the year. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: January to April and June to August.

Rain

331 mm in the median year at the habitat, 243 mm of it December to February and July to October. Wettest month August at 55 mm, driest month May at 16 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 239 mm to 973 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 373 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 331 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 22 to 52 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 19, the highest 90th-percentile month 55).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -4.9 °C, the absolute minimum -13.2 °C, 2,343 frost nights in 44 years, 53.3 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 40.0 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 1.4 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range -4.7 °C to 23.3 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 31.6 °C in July (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -4.9 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 42 to 51% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected -38 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Portulaca halimoides through the yearWarmest month July, mean daily high 32 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 1.4 °C; 331 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°50°frost40.0° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-13.2° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125150mm rainDLI 22–52RH 42–51%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 337 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C14 / 7–2817 / 10–2921 / 14–2925 / 18–3027 / 24–3131 / 26–3532 / 25–3431 / 25–3328 / 24–3224 / 19–3019 / 13–2814 / 7–28
Night °C1 / -5–233 / -3–236 / 0–2310 / 4–2414 / 9–2518 / 13–2520 / 15–2620 / 14–2617 / 12–2512 / 6–246 / 0–242 / -4–24
Rain mm22 / 12–6920 / 10–6620 / 7–7617 / 7–6816 / 5–8718 / 3–11752 / 14–11955 / 21–12240 / 16–13529 / 11–10417 / 10–9725 / 13–77
DLI24 / 21–3430 / 27–3739 / 35–4246 / 38–4850 / 39–5352 / 37–5546 / 37–5042 / 38–4539 / 35–4132 / 30–3626 / 22–3422 / 19–32
RH %51 / 47–6250 / 45–6247 / 42–6243 / 38–6342 / 36–6442 / 35–6448 / 41–6450 / 44–6549 / 43–6548 / 43–6448 / 43–6351 / 46–62
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 337 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (410 records in those cells; 8 more cells hold records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cells are left out), with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1156:1438 (32.175, -108.075). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -13.2 °C, 1st-percentile night -4.9 °C, 99th-percentile day 40.0 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 337 distinct grid cells holding 410 of the 421 in-range records (8 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1156:1438 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 32.00_-108.125, lapse-corrected -38 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1342 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeColorado, Oklahoma, Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Texas, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Guatemala, Aruba, Cayman Is., Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Netherlands Antilles, Puerto Rico, Turks-Caicos Is., Venezuelan Antilles, Windward Is., Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil West-Central, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil North · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker35.225, -115.305 · in the densest population, 397 records (35% of those in range)
Doubtfully present inFrench Guiana · recorded by WCVP as doubtfully present: not part of the range records are tested against
Kew's description“annual” · “seasonally dry tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1150 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 410 of them in the land cells it reads, of 421 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 809 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 8945 km away. 11 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 729 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 1150 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Portulaca halimoides, photograph 1did not loadPortulaca halimoides, photograph 2did not loadPortulaca halimoides, photograph 3did not loadPortulaca halimoides, photograph 4did not loadPortulaca halimoides, photograph 5did not loadPortulaca halimoides, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Jo Roberts, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Stan Shebs, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (3); (c) Jose Manuel Ramos Martinez, some rights reserved (CC BY).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Hemionitis cochisensis Pteridaceae Menodora scabra Menodora scabra Rough menodora Photo: CC BY, Andrea Villarreal RodríguezSporobolus wrightii Sporobolus wrightii Big alkali sacaton Photo: CC BY, CK2AZEriogonum abertianum Eriogonum abertianum Abert's wild buckwheat Photo: CC0, author not statedOpuntia pottsii Opuntia pottsii Potts's prickly-pear Photo: CC BY, Mauricio CalderónHedeoma nana Hedeoma nana Dwarf false pennyroyal Photo: CC BY, Jo Roberts

Other Portulaca 13 in the reference

Portulaca amilis Portulaca amilis Paraguayan purslane Photo: CC0, author not statedPortulaca cryptopetala Portulaca cryptopetala Portulacaceae Photo: CC BY, Carla Florencia RodríguezPortulaca gilliesii Portulaca gilliesii Portulacaceae Photo: CC BY, Rafael TosiPortulaca grandiflora Portulaca grandiflora Rose-moss Photo: CC BY, Guillermo DebandiPortulaca molokiniensis Portulaca molokiniensis 'Ihi Photo: CC BY, Eric KnightPortulaca obtusa Portulaca obtusa Argentinian Purslane Photo: CC BY, Lucas CarbonePortulaca oleracea Portulaca oleracea Common purslane Photo: CC BY, zebedeugalinhaPortulaca pilosa Portulaca pilosa Kiss-me-quick Photo: CC BY, Michelle W. （鍾偉瑋）Portulaca quadrifida Portulaca quadrifida Chickenweed Photo: CC BY-SA, Rebecca Ryen-StolsPortulaca rubricaulis Portulaca rubricaulis Red-stem purslane Photo: CC BY, Josiah LonderéePortulaca suffrutescens Portulaca suffrutescens Shrubby purslane Photo: CC BY, Bruce HartmanPortulaca umbraticola Portulaca umbraticola Wingpod purslane Photo: CC BY, Mitul and Vijul Singh all 14 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Portulaca eitenii; Portulaca halimoides var. brasiliensis; Portulaca haughtii; Portulaca martinicensis; Portulaca minutiflora and 7 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Portulacaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Colorado, Oklahoma, Arizona +30
Wild records
1150 in range · 809 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 4 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (2 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 1 at a herbarium, 1 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 32.00_-108.125, lapse-corrected -38 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 122 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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