Oxalis articulata
Oxalis colorea
pink oxalis, pink sorrell, windowbox wood-sorrel
Small's wood-sorrel
usually 1–4 from base, mostly erect, 5–15(–25) cm, often becoming woody proximally, hirsute-pilose proximally, hairs curved, irregularly spreading or slightly deflexed, sometimes ± antrorse on peduncles and pedicels, 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 or without free portions, apical auricles absent;
petiole 2–7 cm;
leaflets 3, green, obcordate, 3–8 mm, lobed 1/5–1/3 length, surfaces usually sparsely strigose-hirsute, sometimes glabrate, oxalate deposits absent.
usually umbelliform cymes, less commonly in irregular cymes, 3–12-flowered;
scapes 12–28 cm, sparsely strigose.
usually umbelliform cymes, sometimes irregular cymes, (1–)2–4(–5)-flowered;
peduncles (3–)5–10(–15) cm.
strigose, hairs short, curved antrorsely.
heterostylous;
sepal apices with 2 orange tubercles;
petals usually purplish rose to red, rarely white, 10–14 mm.
tristylous, well above level of leaves;
sepals 3.5–5 mm, apices without tubercles;
petals yellow to orange-yellow, usually with prominent, rarely faint, red lines proximally, very rarely lines absent, 9–15 mm.
ovoid, 4–8 mm, sparsely strigose.
angular-cylindric, abruptly tapering to apex, 6–16 mm, glabrate to puberulent or sparsely hirsute-strigose, hairs short, sometimes only along angles or at apex.
brown, transverse ridges usually white.
= 42.
Oxalis articulata
Oxalis colorea
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 colorea is common in southeastern Alabama, Mississippi, and probably the northern half of Georgia; outliers apparently occur in a wider area toward the north and northeast. Scattered variants from widely scattered localities in Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee, from within the geographic range of O. colorea, have the habit and prominently red-lined petals of O. colorea; stem hairs are relatively long but are antrorsely oriented, as in O. florida.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
OR
CalFlora
Flora NW
LA Plants
PNW Herbaria
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
MO Plants
