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 oregana

Oxalis florida

Oregon oxalis, Oregon wood-sorrel, red wood-sorrel

flowering yellow wood sorrel, slender eastern wood-sorrel
Habit Herbs perennial, acaulous, rhizomes present, fleshy-thickened, densely scaly, stolons absent, bulbs absent. Herbs perennial, caulescent, rhizomes or stolons usually present, bulb absent.
Aerial stems

usually 1 from base, usually erect, rarely leaning and decumbent, not rooting at nodes, (5–)8–30(–35) cm, herbaceous, glabrous, glabrate, or sparsely to moderately strigose, sometimes sparsely villous proximally, hairs slightly curved, antrorse, nonseptate.
Leaves

basal, clustered at rhizome tips;

petiole 5–15(–21) cm, sparsely to densely villous, hairs rusty;

leaflets 3, green, broadly obcordate, 10–30(–40) mm, lobed 1/5–1/4 length, lobes apically convex, surfaces sparsely villous, oxalate deposits absent.

basal and cauline;

stipules rudimentary;

petiole 2–5 cm, hairs nonseptate;

leaflets 3, green, obcordate, 4–11 mm, lobed 1/5–1/3 length, abaxial surface sparsely strigose, adaxial surface glabrous, oxalate deposits absent.
Inflorescences

1-flowered;

scapes (6–)11–25 cm, glabrous or sparsely villous.

umbelliform cymes, 1–2(–3)-flowered;

peduncles (2–)3–8 cm.
Flowers

heterostylous;

sepal apices without tubercles;

petals white to deep pink, usually with yellow spot sub-basally and prominent purple veins, (8–)15–25 mm.

tristylous, at or slightly above level of leaves;

sepal apices without tubercles, surfaces glabrous;

petals yellow, sometimes with faint red lines proximally, 4–8 mm.
Capsules

ovoid, 6–8(–12) mm, glabrate.

angular-cylindric, abruptly tapering to apex, 7–10 mm, glabrous or glabrate to sparsely puberulent, hairs short, sometimes only along angles.
Seeds

brown, transverse ridges brown.
2n

= 16.

Oxalis oregana

Oxalis florida
Phenology Flowering Feb–Sep. Flowering Mar–May(–Aug).
Habitat Douglas fir, mixed fir, cedar-spruce, mixed conifer, and hemlock-maple forests, maple woodlands, alder glens, Gaultheria thickets, stream banks. Low woods, swamp forests, rich woods, pine woods, sandy sites, burned-over woods, ditches, roadside banks, flood plains, low fields, lake edges, stream banks, pastures, disturbed sites, bluffs, rocky slopes.
Elevation 10–800(–1000) m. (0–2600(–3300) ft.) 10–400 m. (0–1300 ft.)
Distribution
from FNA
CA; OR; WA; BC
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
AR; CT; DC; FL; GA; IN; KY; LA; MA; MD; ME; MO; MS; NC; NH; NJ; NY; PA; SC; TX; VA; VT; WV
Discussion

Oxalis oregana has sometimes been treated as a disjunct geographical taxon of the European O. acetosella Linnaeus (see comments under 21. O. montana).

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

Oxalis florida is recognized by its mostly erect stems, thin stems and peduncles (compared to other species), sparsely strigose cauline vestiture of relatively short, slightly curved hairs, rudimentary stipules, and relatively small flowers with petals that usually lack red lines proximally. It is a species primarily of the Atlantic states and Gulf coast, but it also occurs in Arkansas, Louisiana, southwestern Mississippi, Missouri, and Texas, apparently disjunct westward from its main range.

Intermediates between Oxalis florida and O. colorea apparently occur where their ranges come into contact. According to G. Eiten (1963), O. florida intergrades with O. dillenii in forming intermediate homogenous populations as well as hybrid swarms. Eiten treated O. florida as O. dillenii subsp. filipes, but D. B. Ward (2004) noted that the differences between O. florida and O. dillenii are appreciable and intermediates seem few. K. M. Wiegand (1925) observed that O. florida and O. filipes have the appearance of hybrids between O. stricta and either O. dillenii or O. corniculata but that their absence in much of the region where the possible parents both occur argues against this hypothesis.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 12, p. 148. FNA vol. 12, p. 142.
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. laxa, O. macrantha, O. metcalfei, O. montana, 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. frutescens, O. grandis, O. hirta, O. hispidula, O. illinoensis, O. incarnata, O. intermedia, O. latifolia, O. laxa, 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
Synonyms O. acetosella subsp. oregana, O. oregana var. smalliana, O. oregana var. tracyi, O. smalliana O. brittoniae, O. dillenii subsp. filipes, O. dillenii subsp. recurva, O. filipes, O. florida var. filipes, O. florida var. recurva, O. recurva, Xanthoxalis brittoniae, X. filipes, X. recurva
Name authority Nuttall: in J. Torrey and A. Gray, Fl. N. Amer. 1: 211. (1838) Salisbury: Prodr. Stirp. Chap. Allerton, 322. (1796)
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 Fabaceae, Apiaceae, Boraginaceae, and Polemoniaceae.)

Choose a data source: Flora of North America, OregonFlora, UW Burke Herbarium

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