Oxalis articulata
Oxalis californica
pink oxalis, pink sorrell, windowbox wood-sorrel
California wood-sorrel, Californica wood sorrel
usually 2–8 from base, erect to ascending, 10–40 cm, becoming woody proximally, glabrous or very sparsely short-puberulent, hairs curved-ascending, nonseptate.
basal;
petiole 11–30 cm;
leaflets 3, green to purplish abaxially, green adaxially, rounded-obcordate, 18–20 mm, margins densely loosely ciliate, lobed 1/5–1/3 length, lobes apically convex, surfaces evenly strigose-villous to strigose-hirsute, oxalate deposits in dots concentrated mostly toward margins or over whole surface.
basal and cauline;
stipules oblong, margins narrowly flanged, apical auricles absent;
petiole 3–8 cm, hairs nonseptate;
leaflets 3, gray-green, obcordate, 8–15 mm, lobed 1/5–1/3 length, surfaces sparsely strigose, oxalate deposits absent.
usually umbelliform cymes, less commonly in irregular cymes, 3–12-flowered;
scapes 12–28 cm, sparsely strigose.
umbelliform cymes, 1(–3)-flowered;
peduncles 2–9 cm.
heterostylous;
sepal apices with 2 orange tubercles;
petals usually purplish rose to red, rarely white, 10–14 mm.
distylous;
sepal apices without tubercles, surfaces glabrous;
petals yellow, with red lines proximally, 7–11(–13) mm.
ovoid, 4–8 mm, sparsely strigose.
angular-cylindric, abruptly tapering to apex, 10–15 mm, strigillose, hairs very short, nonseptate.
= 42.
Oxalis articulata
Oxalis californica
Oxalis articulata in the United States commonly has been identified as O. rubra. Oxalis rubra was treated at subspecific rank by A. Lourteig (1982), but subsp. articulata and subsp. rubra have essentially the same native range and occur in similar habitats. Lourteig identified both subspecies in the United States, noting in her key that vestiture is reduced and the sepals are broader in subsp. rubra. Evidence is weak for recognizing more than a single entity. In the Flora of Panama (Lourteig 1980), she recognized only O. articulata, noting that it is naturalized in other parts of America and in the Old World.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Oxalis californica is recognized by its caulescent habit, stems with reduced vestiture (glabrous or very sparsely short-puberulent), one (to three) flowers on long peduncles and pedicels, the yellow corollas often drying with a blue or purplish tinge, and relatively wide, glabrous, and usually purplish or pinkish tinged sepals.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
OR
CalFlora
Flora NW
LA Plants
PNW Herbaria
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
