Oxalis trilliifolia |
Oxalis macrantha |
|
---|---|---|
great oxalis, great wood-sorrel, three leaf woodsorrel, trillium leaf oxalis, trillium-leaf wood-sorrel |
Price's wood-sorrel |
|
Habit | Herbs perennial, acaulous, rhizomes present, fleshy-thickened, densely scaly, stolons absent, bulbs absent. | Herbs perennial, caulescent, strongly colonial rhizomes or stolons usually present, bulbs absent. |
Aerial stems | usually 2–8 from base, erect initially, usually becoming decumbent, 5–20(–40) cm, becoming woody proximally, hirsute-pilose on at least proximal 2/3, hairs curved, loosely and irregularly spreading, nonseptate. |
|
Leaves | basal, clustered at rhizome tips; petiole 15–30 cm; leaflets 3, green, broadly obcordate, 20–40(–60) mm, lobed 1/6–1/4 length, lobes apically convex, surfaces sparsely villous, oxalate deposits absent. |
basal and cauline; stipules oblong, margins narrowly flanged or without free portions, apical auricles absent; petiole 2–7 cm; leaflets 3, green, obcordate, 3.5–12 mm, lobed 1/5–1/3 length, surfaces usually strigose-hirsute, sometimes glabrate, oxalate deposits absent. |
Inflorescences | umbelliform cymes, 2–9(–15)-flowered; scapes 15–25 cm, glabrous or sparsely villous. |
umbelliform cymes, less commonly irregular cymes, (1–)3–8-flowered; peduncles (3–)5–10(–15) cm. |
Pedicels | villous, hairs long, spreading. |
|
Flowers | heterostylous; sepal apices without tubercles; petals white to pinkish, sometimes greenish proximally, without prominent veins, 8–14 mm. |
distylous, well above level of leaves; sepal apices without tubercles; petals yellow to yellow-orange, with prominent red lines proximally, (13–)15–20(–23) mm. |
Capsules | narrowly fusiform, 15–25(–30) mm, glabrous. |
angular-cylindric, abruptly tapering to apex, 10–15 mm, sparsely to densely hirsute-pilose, hairs long, sometimes mostly along angles. |
Seeds | brown, transverse ridges usually white. |
|
Oxalis trilliifolia |
Oxalis macrantha |
|
Phenology | Flowering May–Sep. | Flowering Mar–May. |
Habitat | Redwood, spruce-fir, Douglas fir, hemlock, hemlock-cedar, hemlock-alder woodlands, stream margins, swamps. | Dry limestone glades, cedar barrens, chalk prairies, limestone bluffs and outcrops. |
Elevation | 20–1800 m. (100–5900 ft.) | 100–300 m. (300–1000 ft.) |
Distribution |
CA; ID; OR; WA
|
AL; KY; TN; Mexico (Nuevo León) |
Discussion | Oxalis macrantha is restricted mostly to limestone glades in Alabama, Kentucky, and Tennessee. It is recognized by its villous to villous-hirsute stems, flowers in umbelliform cymes, and large yellow to yellow-orange corollas with red lines proximally. The lines in the throat remain visible after drying and usually can be seen on herbarium specimens even from the outside of the flower. A similar pattern also occurs in other species, especially O. grandis, O. illinoensis, and O. texana. Seemingly disjunct plants of native habitats in Nuevo León, Mexico, identified as Oxalis macrantha apparently are more common than reported by G. L. Nesom (2009b). Whether these are actually disjunct or a parallel morphological expression derived from some Mexican species needs to be investigated. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
|
Source | FNA vol. 12, p. 147. | FNA vol. 12, p. 141. |
Parent taxa | Oxalidaceae > Oxalis | Oxalidaceae > Oxalis |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Hesperoxalis trilliifolia | O. corniculata var. macrantha, O. hirsuticaulis, O. priceae, O. recurva var. macrantha, Xanthoxalis hirsuticaulis, X. macrantha, X. priceae |
Name authority | Hooker: Fl. Bor.-Amer. 1: 118. (1831) — (as trilliifolium) | (Trelease) Small: Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 23: 268. (1896) |
Web links |