Oxalis articulata
Oxalis florida
pink oxalis, pink sorrell, windowbox wood-sorrel
flowering yellow wood sorrel, slender eastern wood-sorrel
usually 1 from base, usually erect, rarely leaning and decumbent, not rooting at nodes, (5–)8–30(–35) cm, herbaceous, glabrous, glabrate, or sparsely to moderately strigose, sometimes sparsely villous proximally, hairs slightly curved, antrorse, 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 rudimentary;
petiole 2–5 cm, hairs nonseptate;
leaflets 3, green, obcordate, 4–11 mm, lobed 1/5–1/3 length, abaxial surface sparsely strigose, adaxial surface glabrous, oxalate deposits absent.
usually umbelliform cymes, less commonly in irregular cymes, 3–12-flowered;
scapes 12–28 cm, sparsely strigose.
umbelliform cymes, 1–2(–3)-flowered;
peduncles (2–)3–8 cm.
heterostylous;
sepal apices with 2 orange tubercles;
petals usually purplish rose to red, rarely white, 10–14 mm.
tristylous, at or slightly above level of leaves;
sepal apices without tubercles, surfaces glabrous;
petals yellow, sometimes with faint red lines proximally, 4–8 mm.
ovoid, 4–8 mm, sparsely strigose.
angular-cylindric, abruptly tapering to apex, 7–10 mm, glabrous or glabrate to sparsely puberulent, hairs short, sometimes only along angles.
brown, transverse ridges brown.
= 42.
= 16.
Oxalis articulata
Oxalis florida
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 florida is recognized by its mostly erect stems, thin stems and peduncles (compared to other species), sparsely strigose cauline vestiture of relatively short, slightly curved hairs, rudimentary stipules, and relatively small flowers with petals that usually lack red lines proximally. It is a species primarily of the Atlantic states and Gulf coast, but it also occurs in Arkansas, Louisiana, southwestern Mississippi, Missouri, and Texas, apparently disjunct westward from its main range.
Intermediates between Oxalis florida and O. colorea apparently occur where their ranges come into contact. According to G. Eiten (1963), O. florida intergrades with O. dillenii in forming intermediate homogenous populations as well as hybrid swarms. Eiten treated O. florida as O. dillenii subsp. filipes, but D. B. Ward (2004) noted that the differences between O. florida and O. dillenii are appreciable and intermediates seem few. K. M. Wiegand (1925) observed that O. florida and O. filipes have the appearance of hybrids between O. stricta and either O. dillenii or O. corniculata but that their absence in much of the region where the possible parents both occur argues against this hypothesis.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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