Oxalis debilis
Oxalis texana
pink wood-sorrel, world-wide 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 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 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.
irregular cymes, (3–)8–14(–28)-flowered;
scapes 15–28 cm, moderately villous to glabrate.
umbelliform cymes, very rarely irregular cymes, (2–)3–5(–8)-flowered;
peduncles 4–10 cm.
mostly homostylous, infrequently tristylous;
sepal apices with 2 orange tubercles;
petals violet to lavender or rose purple, 10–16(–20) 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).
not observed.
angular-cylindric, abruptly tapering to apex, 8–15 mm, moderately to densely puberulent to puberulent-villous.
brown, transverse ridges white.
= 14, 28, rarely 35.
Oxalis debilis
Oxalis texana
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 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.)
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CalFlora
Flora NW
LA Plants
PNW Herbaria
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
