[Portulaca portulacastrum L.; Trianthema portulacastrum L. var. hillebrandii Degener & I. Degener]
(ind) ‘Akulikuli, sea purslane
Stems red to green, decumbent to ascending, rarely erect, often rooting at the nodes, fleshy, many-branched, glabrous. Leaves green, often becoming yellow or red with age, terete or flattened, linear, elliptic to narrowly obovate, l-4(-6) cm long, 0.2-1.5 cm wide, margins entire, apex rounded to acute, gradually tapering to a dilated clasping base, the bases of the paired leaves often overlapping. 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, dorsal appendage 1-1.5 mm long, the tube 1.5-3 mm long; stamens numerous, pinkish purple; ovary 3-celled; styles 3. Capsules ovoid to subglobose, 4-7 mm long, on pedicels 2-12 mm long. Seeds 10-30 per capsule, lenticu- lar-reniform, 1-1.5 mm in diameter, the surface smooth and lustrous. [2n =16, 36, 48, ca. 48*.] Pantropical; in Hawai‘i occurring in a variety of coastal habitats on Pearl and Hermes Atoll, Lisianski, Laysan, Necker, and all of the main islands.—Plate 3.
Degener and Degener (1960a), appar-ently confused by the occurrence of the epithet “portulacastrum” in both Sesuvium and Trianthema, lumped the quite distinct species in each genus together under Trianthema. At the same time, they suggested that the Hawaiian material represented an endemic variety, a contention that to us appears wholly unjustified.