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Plant Profile

Tiny Purslane (Portulaca minuta)

Tiny purslane (Portulaca minuta) blooming in situ.

Photo Credit: Nicholas Matsumoto

Global Rank: N/A
Legal Status: N/A
Family: Portulacaceae
State: FL
Nature Serve ID: 1228979
Lifeform: Forb/herb
Date Inducted in National Collection: 08/30/2023

Description:

Where is Tiny Purslane (Portulaca minuta) located in the wild?

States & Provinces:

Tiny Purslane can be found in Florida

Which CPC Partners conserve Tiny Purslane (Portulaca minuta)?

Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden

Not Sponsored

Conservation Actions

Assigned 08/30/23

CPC's Plant Sponsorship Program provides long term stewardship of rare plants in our National Collection. We are so grateful for all our donors who have made the Plant Sponsorship Program so successful. We are in the process of acknowledging all our wonderful plant sponsorship donors on our website. This is a work in progress and will be updated regularly.

Conservation Actions

Nicholas Matsumoto

09/18/2023

The tiny purslane (Portulaca minuta) was first documented in the flora of Florida just a decade ago, when botanist Keith Bradley of The Institute for Regional Conservation noticed that this diminutive plant, present in a few sandy pockets in the limestone substrate of Big Pine Key, did not seem to match any of Florida’s known native purslanes. Because it is now one of the rare plants of South Florida, Fairchild’s conservation team was eager to bank seeds of this species.

This was not the easiest assignment, as a mature tiny purslane may just be 2-3 cm across, and you almost need binoculars to even see an individual plant (staff frequently had to crawl on their hands and knees to find them). And, never having worked with purslanes before, the “cup and hat” anatomy of their tiny capsules required a little practice, but eventually they got the hang of it, and were able to collect 564 seeds from 44 maternal lines. Big thanks to USFWS biological technician Adar Reed for helping the team with collections!