| Dicotyledon | Literature for Sesuvium portulacastrum
Wagner et al., 1990, 1999; Lorence & Wagner, 2020. |
| Aizoaceae -- The Fig-marigold Family | Bibliography |
| Sesuvium portulacastrum | |
Common name(s): `Akulikuli, sea purslane |
| General Information | ||
|---|---|---|
| Distribution | Pantropical.In the Hawaiian Islands, indigenous to Midway, Pearl and Hermes, Lisianski, Laysan, Necker, Ni`ihau, Kaua`i, O`ahu, Moloka`i, Lana`i, Maui, Kaho`olawe, Hawai`i. | |
| Habitat | Mostly littoral | |
| Habit |
Perennial herb; stems red to green, decumbent to ascending, rarely erect, often rooting at the nodes, fleshy, many branched, glabrous. |
|
| Leaves |
Leaves green, often becoming yellow or red with age, subsessile; blade terete or flattened, linear, elliptic to narrowly obovate, 1‒4(‒6) cm long, 0.2‒1.5 cm wide, margin entire, apex rounded to acute, gradually tapering to a dilated clasping base, bases of the paired leaves often overlapping. |
|
| Flowers |
Flowers solitary in the leaf axils; calyx lobes green externally, pinkish purple to white within, lanceolate to narrowly ovate, 4‒10 mm long, 3‒6 mm wide, with a green, subapical, abaxial appendage 1‒1.5 mm long, tube 1.5‒3 mm long; stamens numerous, pinkish purple; ovary 3-locular, styles 3. |
|
| Fruit |
Fruit ovoid to subglobose, 4‒7 mm long, pedicel 2‒12 mm long. |
|
| Seeds |
Seeds 10‒30 per capsule, lenticular reniform, 1‒1.5 mm in diameter, surface smooth and lustrous. |
|
| Chromosomes |
2n = 16, 36, 48, ca. 48. |
|
| Contributor |
Nancy Khan |
