biology

Portulacaceae

Portulacaceae is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Portulacaceae rather than just read about it. In short: The Portulacaceae are a family of flowering plants, comprising 115 species in a single genus Portulaca. Formerly some 20 genera with about 500 species, were placed there, but it is now restricted to encompass only one genus.

Key takeaways

Portulacaceae belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Portulacaceae to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Portulacaceae from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Portulacaceae are a family of flowering plants, comprising 115 species in a single genus Portulaca. Formerly some 20 genera with about 500 species, were placed there, but it is now restricted to encompass only one genus. It is also known as the purslane family. It has a cosmopolitan distribution, with the highest diversity in semiarid regions of the Southern Hemisphere in Africa, Australia, and South America, but with a few species also extending north into Arctic regions. The family is very similar to the Caryophyllaceae, differing in the calyx, which has only two sepals. The APG II system (2003; unchanged from the APG system of 1998) assigns it to the order Caryophyllales in the clade core eudicots. In the APG III system, several genera were moved to the Montiaceae, Didiereaceae, Anacampserotaceae and Talinaceae, thus making the family monotypic and only containing the genus Portulaca.

Species The following species are accepted:

Formerly placed here Anacampseros arachnoides (Haw.) Sims (as P. arachnoides Haw.) Anacampseros filamentosa subsp. filamentosa (as P. filamentosa Haw.) Anacampseros lanceolata subsp. lanceolata (as P. lanceolata Haw.) Anacampseros rufescens (Haw.) Sweet (as P. rufescens Haw.) Anacampseros telephiastrum DC. (as P. anacampseros L.) Montia howellii S. Watson Sesuvium portulacastrum (L.) L. (as P. portulacastrum L.) Talinum fruticosum (L.) Juss. (as P. fruticosa L. or P. triangularis Jacq.) Talinum paniculatum (Jacq.) Gaertn. (as P. paniculata Jacq. or P. patens L.)

Uses Common purslane (Portulaca oleracea) is widely consumed as an edible plant, and in some areas it is invasive. Portulaca grandiflora is a well-known ornamental garden plant. Purslanes are relished by chickens. Some Portulaca species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including the nutmeg moth (Hadula trifolii).

Gallery

References

Media related to Portulacaceae at Wikimedia Commons Data related to Portulacaceae at Wikispecies Portulacaceae in L. Watson and M.J. Dallwitz (1992 onwards). The families of flowering plants Flora of North America: Portulacaceae Flora of China: Portulacaceae links at CSDL Archived 2008-10-30 at the Wayback Machine Portulacaceae of Chile, by Chileflora

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Portulacaceae

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Portulacaceae claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Portulacaceae before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Portulacaceae ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Portulacaceae

In research: Portulacaceae appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Portulacaceae in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Portulacaceae is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Caryophyllales families, Caryophyllales genera, Monogeneric plant families, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Portulacaceae outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Portulacaceae in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Portulacaceae means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Portulacaceae out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Portulacaceae in simple terms?

Why does Portulacaceae matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Portulacaceae?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Portulacaceae.