Portulaca quadrifida

• Botanical Name : Portulaca quadrifida L.
• Common Name : Jinni Looni, Chicken Weed, Wild Purslane
• Plant Family : Portulacaceae
• Plant Form : Succulents
• Occurrence (Special Areas) : Indroda Park

About Portulaca quadrifida Plant :

• Habit : A small, annual, diffuse, herb with filiform glabrous stem, rooting at the base.
• Leaves : Fleshy, ovate, acute, opposite, 0.25-0.5 inch long, stipules a ring of silvery hairs, petioles short.
• Flowers :
  • Solitary, terminal almost sessile, surrounded by silvery hairs and an involucre of 4 leaves.
  • Sepals 2, oblong. Petals 4, yellow, oblong-obovate.
  • Stamens 8.
  • Ovary semi-inferior, 1-celled, style slender, 4-fid.
• Fruits : Conical, pyxidium. Seeds minute.
• Flowering and Fruiting Time : November
• Significance :
  • Common weed.
  • Fresh leaves used as a cooling agent for burns and ulcers.