Oxalis debilis |
Oxalis latifolia |
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pink wood-sorrel, world-wide wood-sorrel |
broad-leaf wood-sorrel, Mexican oxalis |
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Habit | Herbs perennial, acaulous, rhizomes and stolons absent, bulblets clustered; bulb scales 3-nerved. | Herbs perennial, acaulous, rhizomes and stolons absent, bulb solitary; bulb scales (5–)7–9(–11)-nerved, inner thickened, white, margins hyaline. |
Leaves | 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 (6–)10–25 cm; leaflets 3, green, obtriangular to obcordate, (15–)25–40 mm, lobed 1/5–1/2 length, lobes apically rounded, surfaces glabrous, oxalate deposits absent. |
Inflorescences | irregular cymes, (3–)8–14(–28)-flowered; scapes 15–28 cm, moderately villous to glabrate. |
umbelliform cymes, (3–)6–10(–12)-flowered; scapes (7–)10–20(–30) cm, glabrous. |
Flowers | mostly homostylous, infrequently tristylous; sepal apices with 2 orange tubercles; petals violet to lavender or rose purple, 10–16(–20) mm. |
usually tristylous, rarely homostylous; sepal apices with 2 orange, short to elongate, not confluent tubercles; petals white to pale green proximally with green veins, purple to lavender or pink distally, 9–12 mm. |
Capsules | not observed. |
cylindric, 4–6 mm, glabrous. |
2n | = 14, 28, rarely 35. |
= 14, 28, 42. |
Oxalis debilis |
Oxalis latifolia |
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Phenology | Flowering Dec–May, rarely again in summer. | Flowering Jun–Sep(–Oct). |
Habitat | Fencerows, yards, flower beds, roadsides, disturbed areas, hammock margins, sandy live oak woods, mesic woods, stream and river terraces. | Rocky slopes, ledges and crevices, ridge tops, canyons, sandy washes, flood plains, mesquite-baccharis, mesquite-acacia, hackberry-willow, oak-juniper-pinyon, oak-maple, or pine-oak woodlands. |
Elevation | 0–100 m. (0–300 ft.) | (1100–)1300–2200(–2800) m. ((3600–)4300–7200(–9200) ft.) |
Distribution |
AL; CA; FL; GA; LA; MS; OR; SC; TX; WA; South America [Introduced in North America; introduced also in Mexico, West Indies, Central America, Europe, se Asia (Malesia), Pacific Islands, Australia]
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AZ; CA; NM; TX; Mexico [Introduced in West Indies, Europe, Asia (Pakistan), Africa (South Africa), Atlantic Islands (Canary Islands), Pacific Islands (New Zealand), Australia]
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Discussion | 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.) |
Collections of Oxalis latifolia from trans-Pecos Texas and eastern New Mexico were mostly identified by M. F. Denton (1973) as O. alpina and O. drummondii. Oxalis latifolia in the narrow sense (type from Campeche, Mexico), with somewhat angular leaflets, occurs in Mexico as far north as Veracruz, San Luis Potosí, and Tamaulipas. The northern populations tend to have more rounded leaflets and perhaps may be better identified by a different name, but they are neither O. alpina (with bulblet clusters) nor O. drummondii (with three-nerved bulb scales). M. F. Denton (1973) observed that Oxalis latifolia probably consists of several races and perhaps hybrids with other species. A. Lourteig (2000) recognized four subspecies of O. latifolia. Her concept of subsp. latifolia restricted it to South America and the West Indies (even though the type was collected in Mexico); subsp. schraderiana (Kunth) Lourteig is entirely South American; and subsp. vespertilionis (Zuccarini) Lourteig occurs in montane Mexico south to Guatemala. She recognized subsp. galeottii (Turczaninow) Lourteig as occurring from Mexico into the United States. In contrast, most others have treated O. galeottii Turczaninow as a distinct species of central and southern Mexico, broadly sympatric with O. latifolia. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 12, p. 152. | FNA vol. 12, p. 151. |
Parent taxa | Oxalidaceae > Oxalis | Oxalidaceae > Oxalis |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Ionoxalis martiana, O. corymbosa, O. debilis subsp. corymbosa, O. debilis var. corymbosa, O. martiana | Ionoxalis latifolia |
Name authority | Kunth: in A. von Humboldt et al., Nov. Gen. Sp. 5(fol.): 183; 5(qto.): 236. (1822) | Kunth: in A. von Humboldt et al., Nov. Gen. Sp. 5(fol. & qto.): plate 467. (1822) |
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