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  

/ ˌpɔːtjʊˈlækə, -ˈleɪkə /

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

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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

Old-fashioned portulaca makes a pretty low-growing green for a fern dish.

From The Kitchen Encyclopedia Twelfth Edition (Swift & Company) by Anonymous

By the porch a damask rose-bush was in bloom, and the fragrance followed him along the path between the borders of portulaca.

From The Miller Of Old Church by Ellen Anderson Gholson Glasgow

Oh, are you going to look at the portulaca?

From Fifty Contemporary One-Act Plays by Various

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