Portulacaceae
Portulaca

Portulaca bulbifera M.G.Gilbert

First published in Nordic J. Bot. 14: 309 (1994)
This species is accepted
The native range of this species is S. Ethiopia to Kenya. It is an annual or tuberous geophyte and grows primarily in the seasonally dry tropical biome.

Descriptions

Extinction risk predictions for the world's flowering plants to support their conservation (2024). Bachman, S.P., Brown, M.J.M., Leão, T.C.C., Lughadha, E.N., Walker, B.E. https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/nph.19592

Conservation
Predicted extinction risk: threatened. Confidence: low confidence
[AERP]

Portulacaceae, Sylvia M. Phillips. Flora of Tropical East Africa. 2002

Morphology General Habit
Procumbent, fleshy, yellowish-green annual; internodes dimorphic, main stems elongate, sprawling, to 35 cm long, not rooting or disarticulating at the nodes, some axillary internodes swollen into globose disseminules 3–5 mm in diameter, these readily disarticulating, a dense tuft of short hairs present at the node at either end.
Morphology Leaves
Leaves opposite, linear, 12–25 mm long, 1.5–3.5 mm wide, subacute; nodes glabrescent, a circlet of short hairs up to 0.5 mm long present on the young shoots.
Morphology Reproductive morphology Inflorescences
Flowers 1(–2), seated on an infundibuliform peduncle on branches gathered towards the ends of the trailing stems; involucral leaves 4, very conspicuous, not resembling the stem leaves, ovate, cordate, 8–15 mm long, 5–8.5 mm wide, cuspidate, with an axillary whorl of hairs 1–2 mm long.
Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers
Sepals ovate, 4.5–5.5 mm long; petals 4, yellow, 5–7 mm long; stamens 15–29; stigma 4-lobed.
Morphology Reproductive morphology Fruits
Capsule dehiscing near the base, lid a broadly rounded dome 2.5 mm high, pale, glossy; seeds suborbicular, 1 mm long, reddish-black, glossy, almost smooth.
Habitat
Acacia-Commiphora open bushland overlying limestone, reported to occur (perhaps exclusively) on dikdik middens; 200–500 m
Distribution
K1 K4/K7
[FTEA]

Sources

  • Angiosperm Extinction Risk Predictions v1

    • Angiosperm Threat Predictions
    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

  • Flora of Tropical East Africa

    • Flora of Tropical East Africa
    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0

  • Herbarium Catalogue Specimens

    • 'The Herbarium Catalogue, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Published on the Internet http://www.kew.org/herbcat [accessed on Day Month Year]'. Please enter the date on which you consulted the system.
    • Digital Image © Board of Trustees, RBG Kew http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

  • Kew Backbone Distributions

    • The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Vascular Plants 2025. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and https://powo.science.kew.org/
    • © Copyright 2023 World Checklist of Vascular Plants. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0

  • Kew Names and Taxonomic Backbone

    • The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Vascular Plants 2025. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and https://powo.science.kew.org/
    • © Copyright 2023 International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Vascular Plants. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0