This summer annual is edible. In India it is used as a vegetable. It does look tasty with those succulent, fleshy, colorful stems and leaves.
Purslane has a prostrate growth habit (below), which means it grows close to the ground. I doubt whether purslane causes much economic losses in crop fields. Maybe it would make a good cover crop, or nurse crop. The picture on the far left shows purslane with prostrate spurge, spurges smaller leaves and milky sap are the biggest differences of these two species.
The flowers are yellow and quite unusual (below). I had to get up real early to take the picture on the right, purslane flowers appear just before and after dawn usually, and close up at other times in the summer days they flower.
Compare purslane (below, left) with prostrate pigweed (below, right). The fleshier leaves of purslane are the key difference here.
