Oxalis debilis
Oxalis brasiliensis
pink wood-sorrel, world-wide wood-sorrel
Brazilian wood-sorrel
basal;
petiole 10–25 cm;
leaflets 3, green to yellowish green, rounded-obcordate, 17–40(–50) mm, lobed 1/6–1/5 length, lobes apically convex, adaxial surface hirsute, adaxial surface glabrous, oxalate deposits in dots at least around distal margins, often evenly over surface.
basal;
petiole often purplish proximally, 3–13[–20] cm, glabrous [sparsely and finely strigose];
leaflets 3, light green, obdeltate with rounded angles, [2–]10–21[–32] mm, lobed 1/10–1/20 length, lobes apically shallowly convex to nearly truncate, margins glabrous or sparsely irregularly ciliate, hairs loose, fine, abaxial surface sparsely but evenly strigose, adaxial surface glabrous, oxalate deposits absent.
irregular cymes, (3–)8–14(–28)-flowered;
scapes 15–28 cm, moderately villous to glabrate.
umbelliform cymes, 1(–2)[–5]-flowered;
scapes 14–17[–30] cm, glabrous.
mostly homostylous, infrequently tristylous;
sepal apices with 2 orange tubercles;
petals violet to lavender or rose purple, 10–16(–20) mm.
apparently tristylous (mid-styled flowers observed);
sepals purplish, apices without tubercles, surfaces glabrous;
petals violet-purple, with dark purple veins proximally, 18–20 mm.
not observed.
narrowly cylindric, 15–22 mm, indumentum not seen.
= 14, 28, rarely 35.
Oxalis debilis
Oxalis brasiliensis
Oxalis debilis appears to be spreading rapidly in the United States. The species produces numerous bulblets in a basal cluster and apparently also can spread laterally by production of bulblets at the tips of filiform roots or rhizomes; it can form large, dense colonies. A. Lourteig (1980) noted that plants of this species occasionally fruit but consistently reproduce through abundant bulblets. They apparently are seed-sterile in North America.
Oxalis corymbosa and O. debilis were differentiated by A. Lourteig (2000) primarily by the distribution of oxalate deposits in the leaf lamina. In O. debilis, the dotlike deposits are crowded along the margins and absent to distinctly less abundant elsewhere. In O. corymbosa, the deposits are evenly distributed over the whole lamina. In their native range in South America, the two expressions are broadly sympatric and intermediates are common, as they are in the flora area. Intermediates have the oxalate dots along the margins as well as over the whole surface or sometimes mostly on the outer third of the blades, near the margins. There is no justification for formal recognition of two entities.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Oxalis brasiliensis is naturalized in Dallas County (H. E. Horne et al. 2013). The species is recognized by its leaves without oxalate deposits and sepals without tubercles; outer bulb scales with five to eight (to 13) nerves; one or two (or three) flowers per scape; and violet-purple, dark purple-veined corollas. The large, showy flowers make this species popular in the horticultural trade (see http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/SouthAmericanOxalis#brasiliensis for additional horticultural information on the species). Growth habit in the Dallas County population ranged from small clumps to dense mats along the roadside, extending to the margin of the woodland.
A low percentage of the Dallas County Oxalis brasiliensis population was reproducing by tiny propagules produced at the bract region of the scape. These propagules apparently are highly foreshortened stems, as they produce whorls of small leaves; they do not produce scales and thus are not the so-called aerial bulbils, as in the miniature bulbs described in some South African species (see http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/SouthAfricanOxalis).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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Flora NW
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