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Lythrum portula

Common name:	Water Purslane	Family:	Lythraceae
Author:	(L.)D.A.Webb.	Botanical references:	17
Synonyms:	Peplis portula (L.)
Known Hazards:	None known
Range:	Europe, incl Britain, mainly central and northern areas but not the Arctic, east to the Caucasus.
Habitat:	Muddy margins of pools and puddles, but not in calcareous soils[17].
Edibility Rating (1-5):	1	Medicinal Rating (1-5):	0

Other Common Names:	From various places around the Web, may not be correct. See below.
	Spatula-leaf Loosestrife [B], Spatulaleaf Loosestrife [P], Waterpostelein [D],
Systematics:	From a USDA Plants Database
	Order: Myrtales. Loosestrife family
Noxious, Invasive and Injurious Weeds	From USDA PLANTS database, Weeds Australia , DEFRA Injurious Weeds
	Listed as noxious/invasive for: North Carolina, Wisconsin.

Physical Characteristics

Annual growing to 0.2m by 0.3m . . It is in flower from June to October. The flowers are hermaphrodite (have both male and female organs). We rate it 1/5 for edibility and 0/5 for medicinal use.

The plant prefers light (sandy), medium (loamy) and heavy (clay) soils. The plant prefers acid and neutral soils. It can grow in semi-shade (light woodland) or no shade. It requires wet soil and can grow in water.

Habitats and Possible Locations

Pond, Bog Garden.

Edible Uses

Leaves.

Leaves - raw or cooked[2, 105, 177].

Medicinal Uses

Disclaimer

None known

Other Uses

None known

Cultivation details

Requires a wet soil. Dislikes alkaline soils[17].
This species was formerly cultivated for its edible leaves[2].
A prostrate plant, the stem rooting as it creeps along the ground[17].

Propagation

Seed - sow spring or early autumn in situ.

Suppliers

For more details of plant suppliers please see our Suppliers Page which lists many more places to look.

Web References

[B] Data (Latin & Common names, other references) from the BONAP's Synonymized Checklist of the Vascular Flora of the United States, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.
[C] Taxon data. from the CalFlora database.
[P] Data. (uses, distribution, wetland) from the USDA'a Plants database.
[HP] Links, Photos, Suppliers from Hortiplex Plant Database

References for the family Lythraceae.

To be included in the Flora of China.

See the PFAF Links Pages for other sources.

Also try Photos and info from the The Plants Database which has 14,000 images.

References

[2] Hedrick. U. P. Sturtevant's Edible Plants of the World. Dover Publications 1972 ISBN 0-486-20459-6
Lots of entries, quite a lot of information in most entries and references.

[17] Clapham, Tootin and Warburg. Flora of the British Isles. Cambridge University Press 1962
A very comprehensive flora, the standard reference book but it has no pictures.

[105] Tanaka. T. Tanaka's Cyclopaedia of Edible Plants of the World. Keigaku Publishing 1976
The most comprehensive guide to edible plants I've come across. Only the briefest entry for each species, though, and some of the entries are more than a little dubious. Not for the casual reader.

[177] Kunkel. G. Plants for Human Consumption. Koeltz Scientific Books 1984 ISBN 3874292169
An excellent book for the dedicated. A comprehensive listing of latin names with a brief list of edible parts.

Readers Comments

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Plant information taken from the Plants For A Future - Species Database. Copyright (c) 1997-2003.
WEB search engine by Rich Morris - Home Page- Contact Info
Blagdon Cross, Ashwater, Beaworthy, Devon, EX21 5DF, UK.
Website: www.pfaf.org Phone: 0845 458 4719/_44(0) 1208 872963

This page (UK) http://www.comp.leeds.ac.uk/cgi-bin/pfaf/arr_html?Lythrum+portula
This page (US) http://www.ibiblio.org/pfaf/cgi-bin/arr_html?Lythrum+portula

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We make no claims of magical effects or supernatural powers for any item in this catalog. In spite of legendary attributes or occult and craft tradition, such items are offered as curios only and beliefs concerning their magical effectiveness are related only for historical interest.