Oxalis debilis |
Oxalis violacea |
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pink wood-sorrel, world-wide wood-sorrel |
purple woodsorrel, violet wood-sorrel |
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Habit | Herbs perennial, acaulous, rhizomes and stolons absent, bulblets clustered; bulb scales 3-nerved. | Herbs perennial, acaulous, rhizomes usually absent, rarely present, slender, scaly, stolons absent, bulb solitary, bulblets at rhizome tips; bulb scales 3-nerved, margins villous-ciliate on distal 1/3–1/2. |
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, rarely absent at flowering; petiole (4–)7–13(–24) cm; leaflets 3, green to purple abaxially, green adaxially, often with purplish, lateral band across lobes of each leaflet, rounded-obcordate to obreniform, (5–)8–15(–20) mm, lobed 1/4–1/3 length, lobes apically convex, surfaces glabrous, oxalate deposits in lines along margins at base of notch. |
Inflorescences | irregular cymes, (3–)8–14(–28)-flowered; scapes 15–28 cm, moderately villous to glabrate. |
umbelliform cymes, (1–)2–8(–19)-flowered; scapes (6–)9–23(–31) cm, glabrous. |
Flowers | mostly homostylous, infrequently tristylous; sepal apices with 2 orange tubercles; petals violet to lavender or rose purple, 10–16(–20) mm. |
distylous; sepal apices with 2 orange, linear, apically confluent tubercles; petals white to pale green proximally with green veins, rose purple or lavender to pink or white distally, 10–18 mm. |
Capsules | not observed. |
ovoid, 4–5 mm, glabrous. |
2n | = 14, 28, rarely 35. |
= 28. |
Oxalis debilis |
Oxalis violacea |
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Phenology | Flowering Dec–May, rarely again in summer. | Flowering Apr–May(–Jul) (with leaves) and Aug–Oct (usually without leaves, following rains). |
Habitat | Fencerows, yards, flower beds, roadsides, disturbed areas, hammock margins, sandy live oak woods, mesic woods, stream and river terraces. | Sandy soils, gravelly soils, prairies, limestone glades, hills of granite, limestone, and rocky-clay, rock outcrops, bluffs, bottomland, oak-pine/heath, oak-hickory, live oak, or juniper woodlands, cutover pine forests, roadsides, disturbed sites, abandoned fields. |
Elevation | 0–100 m. (0–300 ft.) | 50–400(–1000) m. (200–1300(–3300) 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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AL; AR; CT; DC; DE; FL; GA; IA; IL; IN; KS; KY; LA; MA; MD; MI; MN; MO; MS; NC; ND; NE; NJ; NY; OH; OK; OR; PA; RI; SC; SD; TN; TX; VA; VT; WI; WV; WY; Mexico (Coahuila)
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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.) |
Oxalis violacea in the flora area is native to the eastern United States, reaching westward as far as the line of states from North Dakota to Texas; it is apparently non-native in Oregon and Wyoming, if those plants are correctly identified. Plants identified by M. F. Denton (1973) as O. violacea and those considered to have affinity to that species from Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico are identified here as O. latifolia and O. metcalfei. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 12, p. 152. | FNA vol. 12, p. 150. |
Parent taxa | Oxalidaceae > Oxalis | Oxalidaceae > Oxalis |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Ionoxalis martiana, O. corymbosa, O. debilis subsp. corymbosa, O. debilis var. corymbosa, O. martiana | Ionoxalis violacea, O. violacea var. trichophora |
Name authority | Kunth: in A. von Humboldt et al., Nov. Gen. Sp. 5(fol.): 183; 5(qto.): 236. (1822) | Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 1: 434. (1753) |
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