Post by AussieSurvival on Sept 24, 2008 18:09:08 GMT 9.5
Pigweed, Portulaca oleracea
Other Names: Purslane, Munyeroo, Wakati, Lyawa.
Field Notes:
Pigweed is a succulent, ground-hugging herb with blunt tipped triangular leaves and small yellow flowers. It grows in clumps up to a metre across but usually much smaller.
Pigweed grows worldwide, mainly as a farm and garden weed, but the large form growing in central australia is probably a distinct native species. It sprouts on bare soil after rain, often forming thick mats on floodplains. One plant can produce 10,000 seeds.
Uses:
Tiny black pigweed seeds were a staple food of outback aborigines. When the stems turned pink the plants were harvested and piled onto hard ground, bark or kangeroo skins. After a few days the seeds fell from the plants and could be gathered up, ground into paste and cooked.
Aborigines also cooked and ate pigweed roots, and ate the leaves and stems raw, steamed or ground into paste. Bolied pigweed was the most widely eaten of colonial bush vegetables, and it is sometimes still gathered today.
The seeds are a good source of protein and fat.
19g protein/100g, 13g fat/100g, + good levels of minerals 110mg Na/100g, 300mg K/100g, 1000mg Ca/100g also high in vitamin E.
Information from tim low, wild food plants book, the grams of the pigweed was from JumpedAngel at bushfood.net
Other Names: Purslane, Munyeroo, Wakati, Lyawa.
Field Notes:
Pigweed is a succulent, ground-hugging herb with blunt tipped triangular leaves and small yellow flowers. It grows in clumps up to a metre across but usually much smaller.
Pigweed grows worldwide, mainly as a farm and garden weed, but the large form growing in central australia is probably a distinct native species. It sprouts on bare soil after rain, often forming thick mats on floodplains. One plant can produce 10,000 seeds.
Uses:
Tiny black pigweed seeds were a staple food of outback aborigines. When the stems turned pink the plants were harvested and piled onto hard ground, bark or kangeroo skins. After a few days the seeds fell from the plants and could be gathered up, ground into paste and cooked.
Aborigines also cooked and ate pigweed roots, and ate the leaves and stems raw, steamed or ground into paste. Bolied pigweed was the most widely eaten of colonial bush vegetables, and it is sometimes still gathered today.
The seeds are a good source of protein and fat.
19g protein/100g, 13g fat/100g, + good levels of minerals 110mg Na/100g, 300mg K/100g, 1000mg Ca/100g also high in vitamin E.
Information from tim low, wild food plants book, the grams of the pigweed was from JumpedAngel at bushfood.net