| the plant family Portulacaceae, characterized by chiefly herbaceous plants having simple, often fleshy leaves, sometimes showy flowers, and capsular fruit, and including bitterroot, purslane, red maids, rose moss, and spring beauty. |
purslane family
the purslane family of flowering plants, in the order Caryophyllales, with about 15 genera and 500 species of herbs or small shrubs, native primarily to the Pacific coast of North America and southern South America. Members of the family have leaves that often are fleshy and sometimes form rosettes at the base of the plant. There are no true petals; each flower has two to six sepals that look like petals, and these sepals are enclosed by two green bracteoles that look like sepals. The limits of the lineage that includes Portulacaceae are unclear. Plants previously placed in Didieraceae should be included, and probably also those placed in Basellaceae and Hectorellaceae. Cactaceae may also be part of the same big monophyletic group
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