The answer to last month's question as to the succulent mentioned in
Thoreau's Walden is purslane (Portulaca oleracea). This is probably the most widespread of all succulents. Although
most people consider it a weed, it is edible both raw and cooked and is sometimes deliberately cultivated. My brother
Robert recently purchased a bunch at the local Marcado Latino and Dr. Peter Kortmann, a Dutch physician, proudly served us
some from his garden in Malawi. I use it as food for our desert tortoise.
Although some claim has been made for its
pre-Columbian presence in the New World, most botanists accept an Old World origin. W.J. Burchell, in his Travels in the
Interior of Southern Africa (facsimile reprint 1967, C. Struik, Cape Town), describes feasting on purslane which covered
Asbestos Hill in South Africa. Allen Moorehead, in his historical fiction Cooper's Creek, describes how early
British explorers in Australia fed on purslane. Unfortunately, they didn't eat enough as they all eventually died of
scurvy. |