Flora of North America species comparison

The green links below add additional plants to the comparison table. Blue links lead to other Web sites.
enable glossary links

Oxalis laxa

Oxalis montana

dwarf wood-sorrel

American wood-sorrel, common wood-sorrel, mountain woodsorrel, northern wood sorrel, sleeping-beauty, white wood-sorrel
Habit Herbs annual, caulescent, sometimes densely cespitose, rhizomes and stolons absent, bulbs absent. Herbs perennial, acaulous, caudex present, branched, scaly, rhizomes present, fleshy-thickened, densely scaly, stolons absent, bulbs absent.
Aerial stems

1–5 from base, erect, 0.5–7 cm, usually herbaceous, sometimes becoming ± woody proximally, hirtellous to villous-hirtellous.

Leaves

cauline;

stipules rudimentary;

petiole 1.5–6 cm;

leaflets 3, green, obcordate, 5–12 mm, lobed 1/5 length, lobes apically convex, surfaces glabrous, oxalate deposits absent.

basal;

petiole (2.5–)3–9 cm, villous, hairs reddish;

leaflets 3, green, broadly obcordate, 10–16(–20) mm, lobed 1/5 length, lobes apically convex, surfaces glabrous, oxalate deposits absent.
Inflorescences

racemes, 6–14-flowered;

peduncles 3–15 cm.

1-flowered;

scapes 4–15 cm, glabrous or sparsely villous, hairs reddish.
Flowers

heterostylous;

sepal apices without tubercles;

petals yellow, 6–12 mm.

heterostylous;

sepal apices without tubercles;

petals white with orange-yellow spot sub-basally, rose colored band proximally, and prominent rose colored veins, 10–15 mm.
Capsules

ovoid to spheric, 3–5 mm, puberulent.

subglobose, 2–4 mm, glabrous.
2n

= 22.

Oxalis laxa

Oxalis montana
Phenology Flowering Apr–Jun. Flowering May–Aug.
Habitat Disturbed sites, riparian woodlands, riverbanks, gravelly beaches, rock crevices, foothill woodlands. Spruce-fir, spruce-hemlock, spruce-cedar, spruce-birch, mixed conifer-hardwoods, beech-maple, damp and swampy woods.
Elevation 10–800 m. (0–2600 ft.) 100–2200 m. (300–7200 ft.)
Distribution
from FNA
CA; South America (Chile) [Introduced in North America]
from FNA
CT; GA; KY; MA; MD; ME; MI; MN; NC; NH; NJ; NY; OH; PA; TN; VA; VT; WI; WV; NB; NL; NS; ON; PE; QC; SPM
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Oxalis laxa is widespread in California in the eastern part of the Central Valley and along the central coast.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Oxalis montana of eastern North America and O. oregana of the Pacific region have sometimes been treated as disjunct geographical taxa of the European (or Eurasian, depending on taxonomic interpretation) O. acetosella Linnaeus. The three are very similar and surely are closely related. Section Acetosellae Reiche also includes the Asian O. griffithii Edgeworth & Hooker f., O. leucolepsis Diels, and O. obtriangulata Maximowicz, as well as O. magellanica G. Forster (South America, New Zealand, Tasmania); the first two of these also have been treated as taxa within O. acetosella (see synonyms in Liu Q. R. and M. F. Watson 2008). Among all these, typical O. acetosella, the two American taxa, and O. magellanica have erect flowers, while those of the strictly Asian taxa are distinctly nodding, perhaps suggesting that the latter are monophyletic.

Oxalis oregana stands apart from O. montana and typical O. acetosella in its larger leaves and flowers and its strigose-villous (versus glabrous) sepals. Each of the three is distinct in petal coloration and this difference between O. acetosella and O. montana is perhaps the only one between them besides the geographical disjunction. In O. montana, the orange-yellow region near the petal base is constricted to a spot (versus a lateral band in typical O. acetosella) and a light and diffuse but distinct rose colored band lies immediately distal to the spot, connecting among the petals to form a circle. Oxalis acetosella in the strict sense occurs from Iceland to southern Europe (and possibly northern Africa), reportedly stretching as a broad band completely across Eurasia to Japan to Korea (J. F. Veldkamp 1971; Liu Q. R. and M. F. Watson 2008). Attributions of O. acetosella to Pakistan and other Himalayan localities apparently are based on plants of O. griffithii.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 12, p. 145. FNA vol. 12, p. 147.
Parent taxa Oxalidaceae > Oxalis Oxalidaceae > Oxalis
Sibling taxa
O. albicans, O. articulata, O. bowiei, O. brasiliensis, O. caerulea, O. californica, O. colorea, O. corniculata, O. debilis, O. decaphylla, O. dichondrifolia, O. dillenii, O. drummondii, O. florida, O. frutescens, O. grandis, O. hirta, O. hispidula, O. illinoensis, O. incarnata, O. intermedia, O. latifolia, O. macrantha, O. metcalfei, O. montana, O. oregana, O. pes-caprae, O. pilosa, O. purpurea, O. stricta, O. suksdorfii, O. texana, O. triangularis, O. trilliifolia, O. violacea
O. albicans, O. articulata, O. bowiei, O. brasiliensis, O. caerulea, O. californica, O. colorea, O. corniculata, O. debilis, O. decaphylla, O. dichondrifolia, O. dillenii, O. drummondii, O. florida, O. frutescens, O. grandis, O. hirta, O. hispidula, O. illinoensis, O. incarnata, O. intermedia, O. latifolia, O. laxa, O. macrantha, O. metcalfei, O. oregana, O. pes-caprae, O. pilosa, O. purpurea, O. stricta, O. suksdorfii, O. texana, O. triangularis, O. trilliifolia, O. violacea
Synonyms O. corniculata var. sericea, O. micrantha, O. radicosa, O. simulans O. acetosella subsp. montana, O. acetosella var. rhodantha
Name authority Hooker & Arnott: Bot. Beechey Voy., 13. (1830) Rafinesque: Amer. Monthly Mag. & Crit. Rev. 2: 266. (1818)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



Type/paste one or more Latin names into the boxes above; matching taxa will show up below the box as you type. You can use the up/down arrow keys to move through the list.

(If the plant you're looking for doesn't show up in the auto-complete list, that means it either isn't described in Flora of North America yet, or it's listed under a synonym. And please note that Flora of North America is still missing several plant families, including Apiaceae, Boraginaceae, and Polemoniaceae.)

Choose a data source: Flora of North America

The species comparison tool is brought to you by:
Northwest Wildflowers