atoll research bulletin no. 392 the flora of - Smithsonian Institution ...

PORTULACACEAE (Purslane Family)
Portulaca grandiflora Hook. "portulaca", "purslane", "pigface"
Recent introduction. Brazil. Rare. Decumbent, succulent, annual herb, up to 15
cm high, with tufts of white silky hairs at the nodes and just below the flowers; leaves,
12 to 35 mm long and 1 to 4 mm wide, narrowly cylindric or subterete; inflorescences,
terminal; calyx, 2-lobed, sepals, 5 to 12 mm long, connate; corolla, 2 to 3 cm across, 4-
to 6-petaled, petals, 12 to 30 mm long, pink, red, yellowish, white or striped; stamens,
many (40 to 75); fruit, about 5 mm in diameter, a membranous capsule, circumscissile
(dehiscent by a hemispherical lid). Planted ornamental. 3(58659), 5, 6, 7.
Portulaca oleracea L. "pig weed", "purslane", "wild purslane"
debois, doboiy (N); te boi (K); katuli (T)
Pre-World War I1 introduction. Europe. Occasional. Prostrate, spreading, fleshy,
glabrous herb, up to 30 cm high, branching at base with branches sometimes reddish;
leaves, 4 to 30 mm long and 3 to 12 mm wide, alternate or clustered at branch ends,
obovate, spathulate or oblong-cuneate, obtuse to slightly notched, base cuneate, fleshy,
flattened, dull green or reddish, subsessile; inflorescences, terminal, sessile, few-
flowered; calyx, 2-lobed, sepals connate; corolla, usually 5-petaled, petals yellow,
withering early; stamens 7 to 15; fruit, about 4 mm long, a membranous capsule,
circumscissile (dehiscent by a hemispherical lid); seeds, numerous, small, black, slightly
roughened. Weed in gardens and waste places, especially in sandy, hydroinorphic soils of
the shores of Buada Lagoon. Cooked leaves and stems eaten after pounding and mixing
with coconut flower spathe syrup (karnerara); important famine food during World War
11; plants fed to pigs; leaves and stems boiled with water being used to cure scabies.
3(58624, 58734), 5(4), 6, 7, 8.
RHAMNACEAE (Buckthorn Family)
Colubrina asiatica (L.) Brongn. " soapbush", "hoop withe"
ewongup (N)
syns. Cmnothus asiaticus L.; Ceanothus capsularis F0rst.f.
Indigenous. Paleotropical. Common. Sprawling or climbing, much-branched shrub
or small tree, 1 to 5 m high; leaves, mostly 4 to 11 cm long and 1 to 6.5 cm wide,
alternate, ovate, acuminate, base rounded or subcordate, finely crenate-dentate, glossy
green, nearly glabrous, palmately 3-to 5-nerved, the midrib branched upward; petioles, 1