Oxalis

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Oxalis (Template:IPAc-en (British English)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> or Template:IPAc-en (American English)<ref>Sunset Western Garden Book 1995:606–607</ref>) is a large genus of flowering plants in the wood-sorrel family, Oxalidaceae, comprising over 550 species.<ref name="Christenhusz-Byng2016">Template:Cite journal</ref> The genus occurs throughout most of the world, except for the polar areas; species diversity is particularly rich in tropical Brazil, Mexico, and South Africa.

Many of the species are known as wood-sorrels<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> (also as wood sorrels or woodsorrels) as they have an acidic taste reminiscent of the sorrel proper (Rumex acetosa), which is not closely related. Some species are called yellow sorrels or pink sorrels after the colour of their flowers instead. Other species are colloquially known as false shamrocks, and some called sourgrasses. For the genus as a whole, the term oxalises is also used.

Description

File:Oxalis floral diagram.jpg
Floral diagram of Oxalis

The plants are annual or perennial. The leaves are divided into three to ten or more obovate and top-notched leaflets, arranged palmately with all the leaflets of roughly equal size. The majority of species have three leaflets, superficially similar to those of some clovers.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Some species exhibit rapid changes in leaf angle in response to temporarily high light intensity to decrease photoinhibition.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

The flowers have five petals, which are usually fused at the base, and ten stamens. The petal colour varies from white to pink, red or yellow;<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> anthocyanins and xanthophylls may be present or absent but are generally not both present together in significant quantities, meaning that few wood-sorrels have bright orange flowers. The fruit is a small capsule containing several seeds. The roots are often tuberous and succulent, and several species also reproduce vegetatively by production of bulbils, which detach to produce new plants.

Ecology

File:TAU-2013-Oxalis 0039a-ZachiEvenor.jpg
Oxalis pes-caprae
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Pale grass blue (Pseudozizeeria maha) of the dry-season brood laying eggs on Oxalis

Several Oxalis species dominate the plant life in local woodland ecosystems, be it Coast Range ecoregion of the North American Pacific Northwest, or the Sydney Turpentine-Ironbark Forest in southeastern Australia where least yellow sorrel (O. exilis) is common. In the United Kingdom and neighboring Europe, common wood sorrel (O. acetosella) is the typical woodland member of this genus, forming large swaths in the typical mixed deciduous forests dominated by downy birch (Betula pubescens) and sessile oak (Quercus petraea), by sycamore maple (Acer pseudoplatanus), common bracken (Pteridium aquilinum), pedunculate oak (Q. robur) and blackberries (Rubus fruticosus agg.), or by common ash (Fraxinus excelsior), dog's mercury (Mercurialis perennis) and European rowan (Sorbus aucuparia); it is also common in woods of common juniper (Juniperus communis ssp. communis). Some species – notably Bermuda-buttercup (O. pes-caprae) and creeping woodsorrel (O. corniculata) – are pernicious, invasive weeds when escaping from cultivation outside their native ranges; the ability of most wood-sorrels to store reserve energy in their tubers makes them quite resistant to most weed control techniques.

A 2019 study<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> suggested that species from this genus have a symbiotic relationship with nitrogen fixing Bacillus endophytes, storing them in plant tissues and seeds, which could explain its ability to spread rapidly even in poor soils.

Tuberous woodsorrels provide food for certain small herbivores, such as the Montezuma quail (Cyrtonyx montezumae). The foliage is eaten by some Lepidoptera, such as the Polyommatini pale grass blue (Pseudozizeeria maha), which feeds on creeping wood sorrel and others, and dark grass blue (Zizeeria lysimon).

Oxalis species are susceptible to the rust fungus (Puccinia oxalidis).

File:Close-up of an 'apricot' NZ yam.JPG
Tubers of oca (Oxalis tuberosa) for eating
File:Oxalis tetraphylla leaves.jpg
Four-leaved pink-sorrel (Oxalis tetraphylla)

Uses

As food

Several species of Oxalis are edible wild plants that have been consumed by humans around the world for millennia.<ref name="autogenerated2">Template:Cite book</ref> In Dr. James Duke's Handbook of Edible Weeds, he notes that the Native American Kiowa people chewed wood sorrel to alleviate thirst on long trips, the Potawatomi cooked it with sugar to make a dessert, the Algonquin considered it an aphrodisiac, the Cherokee ate wood sorrel to alleviate mouth sores and a sore throat, and the Iroquois ate wood sorrel to help with cramps, fever and nausea.<ref name="autogenerated2" />

The fleshy, juicy edible tubers of the oca (O. tuberosa) have long been cultivated for food in Colombia and elsewhere in the northern Andes Mountains of South America. It is grown and sold in New Zealand as "New Zealand yam" (although not a true yam), and varieties are now available in yellow, orange, apricot, and pink, as well as the traditional red-orange.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The leaves of scurvy-grass sorrel (O. enneaphylla) were eaten by sailors travelling around Patagonia as a source of vitamin C to avoid scurvy.

In India, creeping wood sorrel (O. corniculata) is eaten only seasonally, starting in December–January. The Bodos of north east India sometimes prepare a sour fish curry with its leaves. The leaves of common wood-sorrel (O. acetosella) may be used to make a lemony-tasting tea when dried.

Other uses

File:Oxalis versicolor (candycane sorrel).jpg
Oxalis versicolor (candycane sorrel) grown in New Zealand

In the past, it was a practice to extract crystals of calcium oxalate for use in treating diseases and as a salt called sal acetosella or "sorrel salt" (also known as "salt of lemon"). Growing oca tuber root caps are covered in a fluorescent slush rich in harmaline and harmine which apparently suppresses pests.<ref>Bais et al. (2002, 2003)</ref>

As ornamental plants

File:Dreieckiger Glücksklee (Oxalis triangularis) (19067830888).jpg
Oxalis triangularis

Several species are grown as pot plants or as ornamental plants in gardens, for example, O. versicolor.

Oxalis flowers range in colour from whites to yellow, peaches, pink, or multi-coloured flowers.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Some varieties have double flowers, for example the double form of O. compressus. Some varieties are grown for their foliage, such as the dark purple-leaved O. triangularis.

Species with four regular leaflets, in particular O. tetraphylla (four-leaved pink-sorrel), are sometimes misleadingly sold as "four-leaf clover", taking advantage of the mystical status of four-leaf clover.

Selected species

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References

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Further reading

  • Bais, Harsh Pal; Vepachedu, Ramarao & Vivanco, Jorge M. (2003): Root specific elicitation and exudation of fluorescent β-carbolines in transformed root cultures of Oxalis tuberosa. Plant Physiology and Biochemistry 41(4): 345–353. Template:Doi Preprint PDF fulltext
  • Łuczaj, Łukasz (2008): Archival data on wild food plants used in Poland in 1948. Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine 4: 4. Template:Doi PDF fulltextTemplate:Dead linkTemplate:Cbignore

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