Field Notes—

Purslane: A Lowly Weed Has Its Day In The Sun

By Curtiss Clark

On the scale of existential pleasure, summer afternoons have exalted rank. Edith Wharton went so far as to declare: “Summer afternoon — summer afternoon; to me those have always been the most beautiful words in the English language.”

But as the sun beats down on the cold-hardened inhabitants of New England, it becomes clear that there are degrees of pleasure for a summer afternoon.

The enhanced summer afternoon involves a hammock, a cool, light drink, and a hot and heavy novel. As for that same afternoon spent bent over under the hot sun, sweating and swatting at biting insects, pulling weeds from the garden beds and walkways? Not so much fun. But even within the not-so-fun experience of weeding under a hot sun, there are still degrees of pleasure.

Pulling those knuckle-pricking thistle stickers among active anthills ranks at the bottom of the weeding pleasure spectrum. And at the top is pulling purslane.

Purslane is a creeping ground weed with blushing stems and succulent teardrop leaves familiar to most gardeners. It seizes the least opportunity between stones, in hardpan soil, and other unattended spots, and runs with it. With other weeds, gardeners must fight for every square inch. With purslane, however, a slight tug at the single central stem brings up the root and the entire surrounding mat of stems and leaves, making it possible to clear large swaths of ground quickly.

Our days of pulling purslane may be numbered, however. Researchers at the Institute for Alternative Agriculture, associated with the University of Connecticut, have put purslane to use as a “living mulch” for spring broccoli crops and found it to be as effective as more expensive mechanical and chemical weed suppression methods with no reduction in crop quality or yield. Purslane crowded out the other weeds without competing with the crop for nutrients in the soil. The work of another researcher at UConn, however, suggests that maybe we should be throwing out the broccoli and harvesting the purslane.

Nearly a decade ago, UConn PhD graduate assistant Usha Palaniswamy identified purslane as “a power food of the future.” It happens to be the richest source of alpha-linolenic acid outside of the ocean. Alpha linolenic acid is the same omega-3 fatty acid found in fish that has been linked to the prevention of cancer, heart disease and hypertension, inflammatory and autoimmune disorders including arthritis, psoriasis, and colitis. It is also a good source of vitamins A and C, and is richer in vitamin E than spinach.

Whether or not purslane is the power food of the future remains to be seen, but as Dr Palaniswamy points out, of the 13,000 known edible plants, most of us include only about 20 or so plants in our regular diets. So with the earth’s population surging and many of its resources stretched to the limit, maybe we should start relying more on a nutrient-rich food source that grows… well, like a weed.

Actually, purslane is already having its day in the sun. Last week, the New York Times reported that many of New York’s top chefs are now adding its sweet tang to their salads, terrines, and patés, and urban farm markets are selling varieties of purslane alongside their salad greens and herbs.

Happily, here in the countryside, we all have a bumper crop of purslane by mid-July without even trying. A fully-grown plant produces 69,000 seeds to keep it coming year after year.

Perhaps the best thing to come of purslane’s changing status from weed to crop is that it means less time weeding and more time in the hammock for all of us.

Ah, summer afternoon — summer afternoon.