Vascular Plants of North Carolina
Account for Paraguayan Purslane + - Portulaca amilis   Spegazzini
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Section 6 » Order Caryophyllales » Family Portulacaceae
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AuthorSpegazzini
DistributionMostly in the Sandhills, southern and central Coastal Plain, and lower Piedmont; rare in the Mountains. Certainly more widespread than current records indicate, as the species is spreading/increasing in recent decades. First collected in the US in Robeson County in 1932. See Matthews and Levins (1985) for an account of its spread in N.A. Most or perhaps all NC records of the native P. pilosa belong here!

Native of South America; in N.A. VA to FL and MS.
AbundanceUncommon to frequent in the Sandhills and southern half of the Coastal Plain; uncommon in the Piedmont; rare in the Mountains. Increasing, and locally common in some places.
HabitatDry sandy roadsides, lawn weed, campus weed, granitic flatrocks, cropfields.
PhenologyFlowering and fruiting May-September. Petals open during sunny days only.
IdentificationThis low-growing/prostrate species is very much like P. pilosa, in having bright rosy flowers, but the leaves are flattened in cross-section (vs. terete).
Taxonomic CommentsThis species was unknowingly included within P. pilosa in RAB (1968) and probably other older references, before differences in these two species was elucidated.

Other Common Name(s)
State RankSE
Global RankGNR
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B.A. SorrieSame data. MoorePhoto_non_natural
B.A. SorrieFallow field, Whispering Pines, July 2015. MoorePhoto_non_natural
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