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 hispidula

Oregon oxalis, Oregon wood-sorrel, red wood-sorrel
Habit Herbs perennial, acaulous, rhizomes present, fleshy-thickened, densely scaly, stolons absent, bulbs absent. Herbs perennial, acaulous, rhizomes and stolons absent, bulbs solitary or clustered; mostly 8–15 mm diam.; outer bulb scales 3[–5]-nerved, inner scales thick, reddish brown, rugose.
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;

petiole 1.5–15 cm, sparsely villous or glabrous;

leaflets 3, green, rounded-obcordate, 4–18 mm, lobed 1/6–1/5 length, lobes apically convex to nearly truncate, margins prominently ciliate, hairs stiff, sharp-pointed, abaxial surface strigose to hirsute-strigose, densely hirsute at very base, adaxial surface glabrous, oxalate deposits absent.
Inflorescences

1-flowered;

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

umbelliform cymes, 1(–2)[–4]-flowered;

scapes 3–27 cm, glabrous or sparsely hirsute-villous proximally.
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.

apparently tristylous (mid-styled flowers observed);

sepals yellowish green, apices with 2 orange, elongate tubercles;

petals yellow basally, otherwise deep rose to purple or violet, with dark purple veins proximally, 11–20 mm.
Capsules

ovoid, 6–8(–12) mm, glabrate.

fusiform, mature size not observed, indumentum not seen.

Oxalis oregana

Oxalis hispidula
Phenology Flowering Feb–Sep. Flowering Oct–Nov.
Habitat Douglas fir, mixed fir, cedar-spruce, mixed conifer, and hemlock-maple forests, maple woodlands, alder glens, Gaultheria thickets, stream banks. Wet ditches, disturbed roadsides.
Elevation 10–800(–1000) m. (0–2600(–3300) ft.) 10–90 m. (0–300 ft.)
Distribution
from FNA
CA; OR; WA; BC
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
AL; South America (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay) [Introduced in North America]
[BONAP county map]
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 hispidula is naturalized in Baldwin County (H. E. Horne et al. 2013). The species is recognized by its leaves without oxalate deposits, outer bulb scales with mostly three nerves, flowers one (or two) per scape, and corollas violet-purple with dark veins. It was noted by S. Rosenfeldt and B. G. Galati (2009) to be tristylous.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 12, p. 148. FNA vol. 12, p. 152.
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. florida, O. frutescens, O. grandis, O. hirta, 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
Name authority Nuttall: in J. Torrey and A. Gray, Fl. N. Amer. 1: 211. (1838) Zuccarini: Denkschr. Königl. Akad. Wiss. München 9: 143. (1825)
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