Jewels Of Opar

Talinum paniculatum is generally thought to be native west of the Mississippi River and adventive eastward, where it often is weedy. In many herbaria, specimens of T. paniculatum are filed as T. patens. Talinum spathulatum (T. chrysanthum) sometimes is recognized separately, but the few differences are minor and inconsistent, and almost all degrees of intergradation occur over much of the range.

Records of Talinum crassifolium Willdenow and T. triangulare Willdenow in Chinese literature are based on misidentifications of this species.

The plants are used medicinally.

Plants to 15 dm. Stems sometimes reddish, slender. Leaves to 12 cm, reduced abruptly beneath inflorescence; blade elliptic to obovate, base attenuate. Inflorescences paniculate, sometimes nodding. Flowers: sepals deciduous, sometimes reflexed, ovate to suborbiculate, 2.5-4 mm; petals red or pink, sometimes orangish, yellowish, or purplish, ovate to suborbiculate, 3-6 mm; stamens ca. 15-20; stigmas 3, linear; pedicel terete, ± uniformly slender, to 20 mm. Capsules subglobose, sometimes obtusely trigonous, 3-5 mm, exocarp and endocarp usually separating after dehiscence; endocarp valves persistent, remaining connate at apex, attached to receptacle by vascular strands from capsule apex; exocarp dehiscing from apex, valves deciduous ± separately. 2n = 24.

Herbs annual or perennial, 30-100 cm. Root few branched, obconic, thick, epidermis black-brown, flesh milky white. Stems branched basally, semiwoody. Leaf blade obovate or obovate-lanceolate, 5-10 × 2.5-5 cm, base narrowly cuneate, apex acute, sometimes retuse, mucronate. Panicle terminal or axillary, large, often dichotomous, long peduncled; bracts lanceolate, ca. 1 mm, membranous, apex acute. Pedicel 5-10 mm. Flowers small, 6-10 mm wide. Sepals purple-red, ovate, caducous. Petals pink or reddish purple, obovate or elliptic, 6-12 mm, apex rounded, rarely retuse. Stamens (10-)15-20, shorter than petals. Ovary ovoid, ca. 2 mm. Style ca. 2 mm; stigma 3-lobed. Capsule subglobose, ca. 4 mm, papery. Seeds oblate, ca. 1 mm. Fl. Jun-Aug.

Ariz., Fla., Ga., Ky., La., N.Mex., N.C., S.C., Tex.; Mexico; West Indies; Central America; South America; introduced in s Africa and s Asia.

Flowering and fruiting Jun-Nov, year-round in s Fla.

Moist to dry woodlands and savannas, also desert scrub, grasslands, beaches, on flats, mounds, slopes, ledges, in sand, clay, limestone, sandstone, igneous, often rocky soils and crevices; 0-2200m.

Cultivated, escaping to shaded wet places. C and S China [native to tropical America; cultivated and naturalized throughout SE Asia].

Portulaca paniculata Jacquin, Enum. Syst. Pl., 22. 1760; Talinum chrysanthum Rose & Standley; T. paniculatum var. sarmentosum (Engelmann) Poellnitz; T. patens Jussieu; T. sarmentosum Engelmann; T. spathulatum Engelmann ex A. Gray

Portulaca paniculata Jacquin, Enum. Pl. Carib. 22. 1760; P. patens Linnaeus; Talinum patens (Linnaeus) Willdenow.