Oxalis articulata
Oxalis texana
pink oxalis, pink sorrell, windowbox wood-sorrel
Texas wood-sorrel
usually 2–6 from base, erect to ascending, 5–15 cm, becoming woody proximally, usually evenly strigose to strigillose from base to peduncles and pedicels, hairs straight, antrorsely appressed to closely ascending, (rarely Louisiana plants proximally villous, hair spreading), 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 usually very narrowly flanged, apical auricles usually slightly free;
petiole 2–6 cm, hairs nonseptate;
leaflets 3, green to purple, cordate, (4–)6–12(–18) mm, lobed 1/5–1/3 length, abaxial surface sparsely strigose, adaxial surface glabrous or sparsely strigose, oxalate deposits absent.
usually umbelliform cymes, less commonly in irregular cymes, 3–12-flowered;
scapes 12–28 cm, sparsely strigose.
umbelliform cymes, very rarely irregular cymes, (2–)3–5(–8)-flowered;
peduncles 4–10 cm.
heterostylous;
sepal apices with 2 orange tubercles;
petals usually purplish rose to red, rarely white, 10–14 mm.
distylous;
sepal apices without tubercles;
petals yellow, with prominent red lines proximally, (10–)12–16(–17) mm (Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas) or 6–12 mm (Alabama).
ovoid, 4–8 mm, sparsely strigose.
angular-cylindric, abruptly tapering to apex, 8–15 mm, moderately to densely puberulent to puberulent-villous.
brown, transverse ridges white.
= 42.
Oxalis articulata
Oxalis texana
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 texana is similar to O. dillenii in its evenly strigose to strigillose stems but differs primarily in its more numerous flowers per inflorescence and larger, distylous flowers with red-lined corolla throats. Plants of O. dillenii with larger flowers on elevated peduncles might be mistaken for O. texana, yet the two taxa exist sympatrically in the range of O. texana and it is clear that they are separate species.
All Alabama plants identified as Oxalis texana (weighting orientation of cauline vestiture in the identifications) are from Dauphin Island and localities in and around Mobile. Compared to those in Louisiana and Texas, the Alabama plants have shorter petals [6–12 mm versus (10–)12–16(–17) mm], a more colonial habit (usually with long, lateral, stolonlike branches versus commonly with short basal offsets), and they grow in disturbed sites (versus mostly undisturbed sites, usually within woods). It is plausible that they may prove to be more closely related to O. colorea than to the western O. texana.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
OR
CalFlora
Flora NW
LA Plants
PNW Herbaria
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
