portulaca

American  

[pawr-chuh-lak-uh, pohr-] / ˌpɔr tʃəˈlæk ə, ˌpoʊr- /

noun

1. any of various fleshy-leaved plants of the genus Portulaca, especially P. grandiflora, widely cultivated for its showy, variously colored flowers.

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portulaca British  

/ -ˈleɪkə, ˌpɔːtjʊˈlækə /

noun

1. any portulacaceous plant of the genus Portulaca, such as rose moss and purslane, of tropical and subtropical America, having yellow, pink, or purple showy flowers

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Etymology

Origin of portulaca

1540–50; < New Latin, genus name, Latin: purslane

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

portulaca

He liked rarities such as the connoisseur’s rambling rose, Aviateur Bleriot, but he saw the same regal presence in a humble nasturtium or that fleshy summer annual no longer in vogue, portulaca.

From Washington Post ● Sep. 28, 2021

To approximate the colors with which pious artisans glorified God at Chartres and Poitiers, Artist Saint has cooked up messes of egg-yolk, hollyhock, calendula and portulaca.

From Time Magazine Archive

The sides are yellow as marigold, The port-lids are red when the ports are up: Blood-red squares like an even chequer Of yellow asters and portulaca.

From Men, Women and Ghosts by Amy Lowell

These butterflies lay eggs for a summer brood of caterpillars which may feed upon the leaves of violets, May apples, portulaca, and stonecrop.

From Butterflies Worth Knowing by Clarence M. Weed

I mean, the portulaca and heliotrope and other old-fashioned plants she dug up for me.

From Natalie: A Garden Scout by Lillian Elizabeth Roy