Portulacaceae

Portulacaceae
Portulaca amilis
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Eudicots
(unranked):	Core eudicots
Order:	Caryophyllales
Family:	Portulacaceae Juss.
Genera
See text

Portulacaceae are a family of flowering plants, comprising about 20 genera with about 500 species, ranging from herbaceous plants to shrubs. The family has been recognised by most taxonomists, and is also known as the purslane family; it has a cosmopolitan distribution, with the highest diversity in semi-arid 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.

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Portulacaceae

Wikispecies has information related to: Portulacaceae

• Portulacaceae in L. Watson and M.J. Dallwitz (1992 onwards). The families of flowering plants
• Flora of North America: Portulacaceae
• Flora of China: Portulacaceae
• NCBI Taxonomy Browser
• links at CSDL
• Portulacaceae of Chile, by Chileflora

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