Oxalis debilis
Oxalis suksdorfii
pink wood-sorrel, world-wide wood-sorrel
Suksdorf woodsorrel, Suksdorf's oxalis, Suksdorf's wood-sorrel, western yellow oxalis, western yellow wood-sorrel
1(–3) from base, mostly erect, 10–25 cm, herbaceous, sparsely to moderately villous, hairs nonseptate and usually septate.
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.
cauline;
stipules rudimentary;
petiole (2–)3–5(–6) cm, hairs septate and nonseptate;
leaflets 3, green, obcordate, (8–)10–16(–20) mm, lobed 1/5–1/3 length, margins green, surfaces glabrous to sparsely strigose, oxalate deposits absent.
irregular cymes, (3–)8–14(–28)-flowered;
scapes 15–28 cm, moderately villous to glabrate.
umbelliform cymes, 1–3-flowered;
peduncles (2–)4–8(–10) cm.
mostly homostylous, infrequently tristylous;
sepal apices with 2 orange tubercles;
petals violet to lavender or rose purple, 10–16(–20) mm.
tristylous, above level of leaves;
sepal apices without tubercles;
petals yellow, 12–20 mm.
not observed.
oblong-cylindric, 10–15 mm, densely puberulent.
= 14, 28, rarely 35.
= 24.
Oxalis debilis
Oxalis suksdorfii
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.)
OR
CalFlora
Flora NW
LA Plants
PNW Herbaria
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
WA
