Flora of North America species comparison

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Oxalis metcalfei

Metcalfe's wood-sorrel
Habit Herbs perennial, acaulous, rhizomes and stolons absent, bulb 5–10 mm, usually surrounded by dense cluster of bulblets, 3–4 mm (sometimes obscuring bulb); bulb scales 3-nerved.
Leaves

basal;

petiole 7–15 cm;

leaflets 3, green, obtriangular-obcordate, 11–25 mm, lobed 1/6–1/3 length, lobes apically rounded to shallowly convex, surfaces glabrous, oxalate deposits usually in narrow band 0.5–1.5 mm along margins at base of notch, sometimes evident on one surface but not other, rarely absent.
Inflorescences

umbelliform cymes, 3–7-flowered;

scapes 7–22 cm, glabrous.
Flowers

tristylous and distylous;

sepal apices with 2 orange, narrow-elongate, nonconfluent tubercles;

petals white to pale green proximally with green veins, purplish to lavender or pink distally, (9–)12–16 mm.
Capsules

cylindric, 6 mm, glabrous.
2n

= 28, 42.

Oxalis metcalfei
Phenology Flowering (Jun–)Jul–Sep(–Oct).
Habitat Stream banks, wet meadows, canyon bottoms, talus, rocky banks, crevices, juniper-chaparral, Cercocarpus, pine, yellow pine-Douglas fir-oak, Douglas fir-aspen, pine-white fir-Douglas fir, spruce-fir, or spruce woodlands.
Elevation 1800–3100(–3400) m. (5900–10200(–11200) ft.)
Distribution
from FNA
AZ; CO; NM; TX; Mexico (Chihuahua, Durango, Sonora, Zacatecas)
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Oxalis metcalfei has mostly been identified as O. alpina (Rose) Rose ex R. Knuth, but the latter is a species of south-central Mexico, far from the populations in northwestern Mexico and the southwestern United States. Oxalis alpina has leaflets with dotlike oxalate deposits scattered throughout the lamina, concentrated near margins, or as continuous, filiform marginal bands around the lobe apices; the corollas usually are white. Oxalis metcalfei is consistently different in the nature of its foliar oxalate deposits and the corollas usually are purplish to lavender or pink.

Plants with chromosome numbers of 2n = 28 are found in both Arizona and New Mexico; those with 2n = 42 are found only in New Mexico (S. C. Weller and M. F. Denton 1976).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 12, p. 149.
Parent taxa 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. laxa, O. macrantha, O. montana, O. oregana, O. pes-caprae, O. pilosa, O. purpurea, O. stricta, O. suksdorfii, O. texana, O. triangularis, O. trilliifolia, O. violacea
Synonyms Ionoxalis metcalfei, I. monticola, O. bulbosa, O. neomexicana
Name authority (Small) R. Knuth: Notizbl. Bot. Gart. Berlin-Dahlem 7: 314. (1919)
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).



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