Talinum portulacifolium (Forsskal) Asch. ex Schweinf. in Bull. Herb. Boiss. 4, App: 2: 172. 1896. Orygia portulacifolia Forsskal, Fl. Aegypt.- Arab. 103. 1775. Portulaca cuneifolia Vahl, Symb. Bot. 1: 33.1790. Talinum cuneifolium Willd., Sp. Pl. 2: 864.1799; Roxb., Fl. Ind. 2: 465. 1832; Dyer in Fl. Brit. India 1: 247.1874. T. indicum Wight & Arn., Prodr.356. 1834.

Herbs or subshrubs, robust, glabrous with rootstock. Leaves subsessile, 6 - 8 x 2 - 3 cm, obovate or oblanceolate, obtuse or rotund and mucronate at apex, entire, fleshy, glossy above, obscurely nerved. Inflorescences terminal, racemose or paniculate. Flowers 1.5 - 2 cm across; bracts 1- 6 mm long, linear; pedicels 0.7 - 1.5 cm long. Sepals 2, 4 - 6 x 3 mm, ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, 3-nerved. Petals 5, pink, purple, or white, 9 - 12 x 5 - 6 mm, obovate to ovate-rotund. Stamens many; filaments 2 - 3.5 mm long, unequal, basally connate; anthers ca 1 mm long, oblong. Ovary superior, ca 2 mm long, 1-loculed; ovules many on free central placenta; styles 3-armed. Capsules 5 - 7 mm in diam., globose, 3-valved. Seeds ca 35 in each capsule, 1 mm long, ovoid or subreniform, black, shining, with concentric striations.

Distrib. India: Introduced in gardens for flowers and foliage; occasionally grows as an escape.

Pantropical.