Trianthema portulacastrum

 

Trianthema portulacastrum ( ) ( )

Aizoaceae

  • Decumbent, succulent annual herb, branching much as in Cypselea, leaves opposite, simple, petioled, the blades orbicular-ovate, the opposing members of a pair unequal in size; flowers solitary, sessile, inconspicuous, borne under the axillary sheath at every node; sepals lanceolate, mucronate; petals none; stamens 5 or 6; ovary 2-celled or with 1 cell aborted; capsule several-seeded, circumscissile, the thickened, often bilobed, crestlike apical part containing a single embedded seed falling with the capsule valve. Weed along irrigation ditches: Imperial Valley; to Texas and Florida, Baja California and the West Indies. "A Flora of the Marshes of California. Herbert L. Mason".
  • This hot-weather ephemeral is common and wide-spread in the region. Food preparation:  The seeds were ground and cooked as a gruel. "People of the Desert and Sea, Ethnobotany of the Seri Indians. Richard Stephen Felger and Mary Beck Moser."

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