Wild Portulaca

 Pink Portulaca Flower; it is being grown indoors
 in Central California

A rich prize for the children
With their a pin-a-pop-a-show.
A picnic for the wild dove
Who reflects your crimson glow.

       Miner's Lettuce has a pretty sister, who will also help you at your parties. At first look, you would not think they were sisters, but they are.

       Some people call Wild Portulaca, Red Maids‚ because she wears such a beautiful red dress, but I think more people know her by the name I use. You have seen her coming up along the roadside, or in a field where the grass is not high. The little stems spread out and send up many flowers, so that a Portulaca bed is very beautiful when the sun shines on it. 

       Portulaca wears a beautiful rose-purple corolla. It is much larger than the tiny white one of Miner's

Lettuce. Its petals are so velvety that they throw back the sun's light straight into Mrs. Bug's eye. They do not need a circle of green for a background.

       Portulaca has a lighter center where she has set some dishes of honey. She has placed dark little honey paths leading down to the party. Mrs. Bug likes the smell of the honey and soon finds the dishes of it. Then, she likes the taste and decides to go to other Portulacas for more of the same kind.

Portulaca from old seed
catalogue.

       The anthers of Portulaca are bursting with a rich orange pollen. As soon as Mrs. Bug touches the stamens, the anthers pour out their rich store. Mrs. Bug is nicely powdered. She carries this pollen to the next Portulaca she visits, and there the stigma gets it down to the ovules. Then, soon new seed is ripening.

       If she wishes Portulaca honey, Mrs. Bug has to work while the sun is shining brightly. Portulaca is very much afraid of dark and cold. As soon as the sun passes from her, no matter how warm the air is, she draws up her velvety petals close around her lovely anthers.

       Are the petals as velvety on the outside as on the inside? Why? Count the petals. Are there the same number as in Miner's Lettuce? See how they fold around each other. When they are open, do they form the same shaped corolla as Miner's Lettuce wears?

       Look at the calyx. See the shape of its two sepals. Each looks like the keel of a boat. That is a fine shape for a calyx. The two sepals can fold over the corolla and keep it safe. You can float these sepals for fairy boats, and no water will soak in.

       Look at the leaves. You see they are scattered up the stem as well as bunched at the bottom. Which leaves are the thickest, those of Portulaca or those of Miner's Lettuce? 

       The seeds of the Portulaca are good to eat, too. The wild dove just dotes on them. Often you see flocks of doves picnicking on a Portulaca bed. They have a very merry time. They eat so fast they forget to mourn. If you sit very still, they will go on with their frolic, stepping daintily and turning their heads to the side as they snap up the shining seeds. If you move, they will get frightened and fly away. You can talk gently. That will not frighten them. Wild birds do not seem to mind talking. They do mind a move of the arm or the leg or the body.

       So, if you wish to watch the wild doves on a picnic, sit down near a Portulaca bed and keep still. See how gracefully the dove holds her neck as she swallows. On her neck, the feathers have caught some of the same beautiful rose-purple that Portulaca has used in her corolla. Perhaps the Dove's feathers have that shade from eating Portulaca seeds.

       Take some of the seeds in your hand. See how black and shiny they are. See that they curve out on both sides. If two seeds start rolling down hill, which will go the farthest, a flat seed or a rounded seed? Portulaca thinks a rounded seed will get farthest from the mother plant and so she makes her seeds that shape. Then, when the seed-case throws it out, it may roll away to a new piece of ground. 

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