Portulaca oleracea L.
Akulikuli-kula, Bembe, Bembe di Kome, Common Purslane
Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.
Summary
Portulaca oleracea is a succulent plant in the family Portulacaceae. All parts of the plant are edible raw or cooked.
Text from Wikipedia, “Portulaca oleracea”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.
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.
Text from Wikipedia, “Portulaca”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.
At a glance
Also known as Portulaca aurea DC.; Portulaca consanguinea Schltdl.; Portulaca cryptopetala var. poellnitziana (D.Legrand) D.Legrand; Portulaca dichotoma Gueldenst.; Portulaca fosbergii Poelln. and 45 more.
Cultivation
Grouped as a cactus or succulent by the genus Portulaca, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table holds no figure for this group, which spans too much for one minimum; the cold floor is the habitat's alone, and no prose comes from the table.
Its year Rain rule: a winter growing season, November to March in the northern hemisphere (November to March at the habitat, northern).
This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.
The rain rule reads a winter growing season: 70% of the year's rain (257 mm of 339 mm) falls in November to March, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 17.4 °C against a yearly mean of 19.2 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: May to September.
Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: 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 gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.
Rain Habitat rain 339 mm a year, wettest December at 62 mm, driest June at 3 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
339 mm a year at the habitat, 257 mm of it November to March. Wettest month December at 62 mm, driest June at 3 mm; 3 months under 5 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 93 mm to 1074 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).
CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.
Light Open sky over the habitat: 22 to 48 mol/m²/day.
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Open sky over the habitat: 22 to 48 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 9, the highest 90th-percentile month 50).
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.
Warmth and air Cold floor 11.7 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 11.7 °C, the absolute minimum 9.9 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 21.7 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 13.9 °C in January (across the envelope cells 2.6 °C to 16.9 °C), warmest day 24.5 °C in August (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 11.7 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).
NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.
Relative humidity at the habitat: 59 to 61% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.
CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.
The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.
Climate across the habitat
Figures by month
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 18 / 9–24 | 18 / 9–25 | 18 / 12–28 | 19 / 15–33 | 20 / 18–38 | 22 / 20–40 | 24 / 21–41 | 25 / 22–41 | 24 / 21–39 | 22 / 17–35 | 21 / 13–30 | 19 / 9–25 |
| Night °C | 14 / 3–17 | 14 / 3–17 | 16 / 4–17 | 16 / 7–21 | 17 / 11–25 | 19 / 14–27 | 20 / 16–29 | 21 / 17–29 | 21 / 14–26 | 20 / 11–23 | 18 / 7–20 | 15 / 4–18 |
| Rain mm | 46 / 12–106 | 49 / 17–102 | 43 / 16–100 | 22 / 6–81 | 8 / 1–67 | 3 / 0–70 | 3 / 0–66 | 3 / 1–67 | 11 / 1–80 | 32 / 2–109 | 57 / 2–143 | 62 / 12–145 |
| DLI | 24 / 11–28 | 30 / 16–34 | 37 / 25–40 | 43 / 31–46 | 46 / 36–50 | 48 / 36–50 | 46 / 36–49 | 44 / 34–46 | 39 / 28–41 | 32 / 19–37 | 25 / 12–31 | 22 / 9–27 |
| RH % | 60 / 55–67 | 60 / 54–65 | 60 / 50–63 | 59 / 45–63 | 59 / 41–65 | 60 / 44–67 | 59 / 46–68 | 60 / 47–67 | 60 / 48–66 | 61 / 49–65 | 60 / 52–66 | 61 / 55–67 |
Each figure is the median across the 56 grid cells holding the 62 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1228:3242 (28.575, -17.875). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 9.9 °C, 1st-percentile night 11.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 21.7 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 56 distinct grid cells holding the 62 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1228:3242 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 28.50_-18.125, lapse-corrected +605 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 704 m (cell mean).
Natural habitat
Photographs
Photographs: (c) Георгий Виноградов (Georgy Vinogradov), some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) zebedeugalinha, some rights reserved (CC BY) (6).
Photographs: iNaturalist and GBIF media did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.
Papers naming this species
Works whose title or abstract names Portulaca oleracea, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.
Related
Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.
Ceropegia fusca Apocynaceae
Argyranthemum frutescens Boston daisy
Dracaena draco Canary Island Dragon Tree
Phoenix canariensis Canary Island Date Palm
Drimia hesperia Asparagaceae
Aeonium percarneum CrassulaceaeOther Portulaca 3 in the reference
Portulaca grandiflora Bunga Pukul Sembilan
Portulaca pilosa Kiss me quick
Portulaca umbraticola Wingpod Purslane History & registers
Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)wcvp.distribution answeredgbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence search APIclimate answeredwikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skippedinat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skippedinat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)gbif.media did not answercarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: api.gbif.org not asked: offline re-derivationopenalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skippedEvery upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 9 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.