土人参 tu ren shen

Portulaca paniculata Jacquin, Enum. Pl. Carib. 22. 1760; P. patens Linnaeus; Talinum patens (Linnaeus) Willdenow.

Herbs annual or perennial, 30-100 cm. Root few branched, obconic, thick, epidermis black-brown, flesh milky white. Stems branched basally, semiwoody. Leaf blade obovate or obovate-lanceolate, 5-10 × 2.5-5 cm, base narrowly cuneate, apex acute, sometimes retuse, mucronate. Panicle terminal or axillary, large, often dichotomous, long peduncled; bracts lanceolate, ca. 1 mm, membranous, apex acute. Pedicel 5-10 mm. Flowers small, 6-10 mm wide. Sepals purple-red, ovate, caducous. Petals pink or reddish purple, obovate or elliptic, 6-12 mm, apex rounded, rarely retuse. Stamens (10-)15-20, shorter than petals. Ovary ovoid, ca. 2 mm. Style ca. 2 mm; stigma 3-lobed. Capsule subglobose, ca. 4 mm, papery. Seeds oblate, ca. 1 mm. Fl. Jun-Aug.

Cultivated, escaping to shaded wet places. C and S China [native to tropical America; cultivated and naturalized throughout SE Asia].

Records of Talinum crassifolium Willdenow and T. triangulare Willdenow in Chinese literature are based on misidentifications of this species.

The plants are used medicinally.