Oxalis pes-caprae
Oxalis purpurea
African wood-sorrel, Bermuda buttercup, soursob
purple oxalis, purple wood-sorrel
basal, rarely absent at flowering;
petiole 3–12 cm;
leaflets 3, green, rarely mottled with purplish red spots, angular-obcordate, (5–)7–20 mm, lobed 1/4–2/5 length, lobes apically convex, margins and abaxial surface villous, adaxial surface glabrous, oxalate deposits absent.
basal, rarely absent at flowering;
petiole (1.5–)3–5 cm;
leaflets 3, green to deep purple abaxially, green adaxially, broadly obovate to obtriangular or broadly rounded-rhombic, 10–20 mm, not lobed, apex truncate to rounded or obtuse, rarely slightly emarginate, margins and abaxial surface hairy, adaxial surface glabrous, oxalate deposits absent.
umbelliform cymes, 2–12(–20)-flowered;
scapes often becoming fistulose proximally, 15–30 cm, sparsely villous to pilose.
1-flowered;
scapes 1.5–6(–8) cm, sparsely to moderately villous, hairs eglandular.
tristylous in diploids and tetraploids, consistently short-styled in pentaploids;
sepal apices with 2 orange tubercles;
petals deep golden yellow, 15–20 mm.
tristylous;
sepal apices without tubercles;
petals yellow basally, usually purple to red, pink, salmon, or white, rarely yellow, distally, 25–35 mm.
not seen.
not seen.
= 14, 28, 35.
Oxalis pes-caprae
Oxalis purpurea
Outside its native range, Oxalis pes-caprae is mostly represented by a sterile pentaploid morph, although tetraploids also are known. The occurrence of both pentaploid and tetraploid individuals in the exotic range may be the result of independent introductions (P. Michael 1964; R. Ornduff 1986). Fruit production has not been observed in North America, and the plants are assumed to be seed-sterile (Ornduff 1987). Bulbs of O. pes-caprae are rarely collected, as they detach easily from the vertical, rootlike stems. Each bulb may produce over 20, small, whitish bulblets each year. Bulblets may also be formed at the soil surface crown.
Oxalis pes-caprae was reported by J. K. Small (1933) to occur in waste places and cultivated grounds in northern Florida, but as noted by D. B. Ward (2004), no Florida specimens are known.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Oxalis purpurea is widely cultivated as an ornamental because of its large, solitary flowers in many color forms, borne on short scapes barely higher than the level of the leaves. Plants of O. purpurea apparently do not produce fertile fruit in California, where it is naturalized in scattered central and southern coastal counties.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
CA
OR
Flora NW
PNW Herbaria
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
