Pink Purslane
Pink Purslane beneath a tree, Lancaster
Patch of flowers
Close-up of flowers
5 stamens, 3-lobed stigma, ovary
Leaves and fleshy stem
Claytonia sibirica
Portulacaeae
April to July
It is scattered throughout the country, but most common
in the Northwest and Southwest.
See the BSBI distribution map for Pink Purslane
It is a neophyte, which has been grown in the UK since
the 1760s and known in the wild since the 1830s.
It grows in shady places in woodland, hedgerows and
by streams.
It is listed by the GB Non Native Species Secretariat
(NNSS) as "spreading slowly but not really invasive".
It is being removed from woodland on Dartmoor.
Pink Purslane can be either an annual or perennial,
patch-forming herb, growing up to 40cm.
The flowers are usually pink (sometimes white), up to
2cm across, with 5 pink, cleft petals with purple veins.
There are 5 stamens with pink-lilac anthers.
The style has a 3-lobed stigma above a globose,
green ovary.
Both stems and the leaves are fleshy.
The leaves are opposite, ribbed, glossy, pointed-ovals.
It is a rapid coloniser that overgrows and crowds out
other plants in the spring.
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Pink Purslane beneath a tree, Lancaster
Patch of flowers
Close-up of flowers
5 stamens, 3-lobed stigma, ovary
Leaves and fleshy stem
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