Portulaceae
A natural order of usually glabrous and more or less succulent, sometimes long-pilose, herbs, rarely small shrubs or under-shrubs, mostly American, some South African or Australian, a few Asiatic, North African, and European. Flowers regular, hermaphrodite, solitary at the tips of the branches, racemose, cymose, or paniculate, or the lower ones axillary or lateral; sepals fewer than the petals, commonly two, rarely five, free or adnate to the base of the ovary, closely imbricated, persistent or deciduous, herbaceous, scarious, or rigid; petals four or five, rarely many, hypogynous or rarely perigynous, connate, imbricated, entire; stamens inserted with the petals, free or in bundles, filaments filiform. Capsule membranous or crustaceous, rarely indehiscent. Leaves alternate or opposite, entire, often fleshy, sometimes stipulate. Several of the species are used as potherbs, and the herbage of Portulaca oleracea is eaten as a salad. Claytonia tuberosa has an edible root. Most of the plants comprised in this order are mucilaginous. Portulaceae includes fifteen genera and about 125 species. Examples: Calandrinia, Claytonia, Portulaca.