Oxalis corniculata

Annual herb, without bulbs. Stems procumbent or ascending, less often erect, often rooting at the nodes, with spreading hairs. Leaflets: lamina 3-15 × 5-20 mm, obcordate-cuneate, pubescent; apex deeply emarginate. Flowers yellow, in 1-6-flowered bracteate pseudumbels. Petals 8-10 mm. Capsule exserted, cylindric, ± 5-angled.

This wildflower is a short-lived perennial about 2-8" tall, although stems that creep above or below the ground may be up to 2½' long. The stems are light green to reddish purple, hairy, terete, and slightly succulent. Trifoliate leaves alternate along these stems. The sessile leaflets are about ½" long and a little wider across; they are obcordate in shape and ciliate along their margins. The upper and lower surfaces of the leaflets are medium green to reddish purple and glabrous to appressed-pubescent; sometimes the lower sides of the central veins are pubescent or hairy. The petioles are about ¾-2" long, light green to reddish purple, hairy, and terete. The base of each petiole is swollen from a pair of fused stipules. The leaflets spread outward in response to light, while they contract inward in response to the absence of light. Flowers are produced either individually or in small clusters of 2-5 from the axils of the leaves and the tips of stems. Each flower is about ¼" across and a little longer in length, consisting of 5 light green to purple sepals, 5 yellow petals, 10 stamens, and a pistil with 5 styles that are fused together at the base. The sepals are lanceolate-oblong in shape and slightly pubescent; they are shorter than the petals. Sometimes the flowers are reddish toward the base of the petals. The pedicels of the flowers are about ¼-1" long, light green to reddish purple, terete, and appressed-pubescent, while the peduncle of a cluster of flowers is similar, except it is longer and more hairy. The blooming period occurs from early summer into the fall, lasting 2-4 months. Afterwards, the flowers are replaced by erect seed capsules about ½" long that are narrowly oblongoid-lanceoloid, 5-valved, and short-pubescent. The pedicels of the seed capsules are straight and either erect, ascending, or descending. Each capsule splits open into 5 parts, ejecting the seeds up to 10 feet. The seeds are 1.0-1.5 mm. in length, broadly ellipsoid in shape, somewhat flattened, and brown to reddish brown. Each lateral side of a seed has 7-9 transverse ridges. The root system consists of a fleshy taproot. This wildflower can reproduce vegetatively by forming rootlets along the nodes of the creeping stems. Small colonies of plants are often produced.

corniculata: with a small horn-like appendage

Canada

Origin: Exotic

Regularity: Regularly occurring

Currently: Unknown/Undetermined

Confidence: Confident

United States

Origin: Exotic

Regularity: Regularly occurring

Currently: Present

Confidence: Confident

The non-native Creeping Wood Sorrel is occasional in widely scattered areas of Illinois (see Distribution Map). It is probably more common than these records indicate. It is not entirely clear where Creeping Wood Sorrel originated, but it was probably introduced into temperate North America from tropical America or tropical areas of the Old World. Habitats include lawns, gardens, mulched areas around shrubbery, and greenhouses. Potted plants or shrubs from greenhouses are often responsible for introducing Creeping Wood Sorrel into gardens and mulched areas. This wildflower prefers disturbed areas with little competition where the surface of the soil has been exposed.

Nile and Mediterranean regions, Oases, eastern desert (Along Suez Canal) and Sinai.

Cosmopolitan, especially warm regions.

Oxalis corniculata var. purpurea Parl.:
Italy (Europe)

Note: This information is based on publications available through Tropicos and may not represent the entire distribution. Tropicos does not categorize distributions as native or non-native.

Oxalis procumbens subsp. bathieana Lourteig:
Madagascar (Africa & Madagascar)

Note: This information is based on publications available through Tropicos and may not represent the entire distribution. Tropicos does not categorize distributions as native or non-native.

Oxalis procumbens Steud. ex A. Rich.:
Ethiopia (Africa & Madagascar)

Note: This information is based on publications available through Tropicos and may not represent the entire distribution. Tropicos does not categorize distributions as native or non-native.

Oxalis riparia Norlind:
Brazil (South America)

Note: This information is based on publications available through Tropicos and may not represent the entire distribution. Tropicos does not categorize distributions as native or non-native.

Oxalis meridensis Pittier:
Venezuela (South America)

Note: This information is based on publications available through Tropicos and may not represent the entire distribution. Tropicos does not categorize distributions as native or non-native.

Oxalis corniculata var. macrophylla Arsène ex R. Knuth:
Mexico (Mesoamerica)

Note: This information is based on publications available through Tropicos and may not represent the entire distribution. Tropicos does not categorize distributions as native or non-native.

Oxalis corniculata var. sericea R. Knuth:
Taiwan (Asia)

Note: This information is based on publications available through Tropicos and may not represent the entire distribution. Tropicos does not categorize distributions as native or non-native.

Oxalis herpestica Schltdl.:
Guatemala (Mesoamerica)

Note: This information is based on publications available through Tropicos and may not represent the entire distribution. Tropicos does not categorize distributions as native or non-native.

Oxalis norlindiana R. Knuth:
Ecuador (South America)

Note: This information is based on publications available through Tropicos and may not represent the entire distribution. Tropicos does not categorize distributions as native or non-native.

Oxalis albicans var. sericea DC.:
Bolivia (South America)

Note: This information is based on publications available through Tropicos and may not represent the entire distribution. Tropicos does not categorize distributions as native or non-native.

Oxalis bradei R. Knuth:
Costa Rica (Mesoamerica)

Note: This information is based on publications available through Tropicos and may not represent the entire distribution. Tropicos does not categorize distributions as native or non-native.

Xanthoxalis langloisii Small:
United States (North America)

Note: This information is based on publications available through Tropicos and may not represent the entire distribution. Tropicos does not categorize distributions as native or non-native.

Oxalis simulans Baker:
Madagascar (Africa & Madagascar)

Note: This information is based on publications available through Tropicos and may not represent the entire distribution. Tropicos does not categorize distributions as native or non-native.

Oxalis villosa Baker:
Madagascar (Africa & Madagascar)

Note: This information is based on publications available through Tropicos and may not represent the entire distribution. Tropicos does not categorize distributions as native or non-native.

Oxalis steudeliana Kunth:
Chile (South America)

Note: This information is based on publications available through Tropicos and may not represent the entire distribution. Tropicos does not categorize distributions as native or non-native.

Oxalis repens Thunb.:
Madagascar (Africa & Madagascar)
United States (North America)
Honduras (Mesoamerica)

Note: This information is based on publications available through Tropicos and may not represent the entire distribution. Tropicos does not categorize distributions as native or non-native.

Oxalis corniculata subsp. corniculata :
Panama (Mesoamerica)
Honduras (Mesoamerica)

Note: This information is based on publications available through Tropicos and may not represent the entire distribution. Tropicos does not categorize distributions as native or non-native.

Oxalis corniculata var. atropurpurea Planch.:
Chile (South America)
Ecuador (South America)
Guyana (South America)
Panama (Mesoamerica)
United States (North America)
Argentina (South America)
Brazil (South America)
Costa Rica (Mesoamerica)
Uruguay (South America)
Caribbean (Caribbean)

Note: This information is based on publications available through Tropicos and may not represent the entire distribution. Tropicos does not categorize distributions as native or non-native.

Oxalis philippii R. Knuth:
Bolivia (South America)
Chile (South America)
Peru (South America)

Note: This information is based on publications available through Tropicos and may not represent the entire distribution. Tropicos does not categorize distributions as native or non-native.

Oxalis minima Steud.:
Peru (South America)

Note: This information is based on publications available through Tropicos and may not represent the entire distribution. Tropicos does not categorize distributions as native or non-native.

Xanthoxalis corniculata (L.) Small:
United States (North America)
Canada (North America)

Note: This information is based on publications available through Tropicos and may not represent the entire distribution. Tropicos does not categorize distributions as native or non-native.

Oxalis corniculata var. villosa (M. Bieb.) Hohen.:
United States (North America)
Brazil (South America)
Ecuador (South America)
Peru (South America)
Uruguay (South America)
Costa Rica (Mesoamerica)
Colombia (South America)
Caribbean (Caribbean)
Bolivia (South America)
Suriname (South America)
French Guiana (South America)

Note: This information is based on publications available through Tropicos and may not represent the entire distribution. Tropicos does not categorize distributions as native or non-native.

Oxalis corniculata var. lupulina (Kunth) Zucc.:
United States (North America)

Note: This information is based on publications available through Tropicos and may not represent the entire distribution. Tropicos does not categorize distributions as native or non-native.

Oxalis corniculata L.:
Argentina (South America)
Australia (Oceania)
Belize (Mesoamerica)
Bolivia (South America)
Brazil (South America)
Canada (North America)
Chile (South America)
Costa Rica (Mesoamerica)
Ecuador (South America)
El Salvador (Mesoamerica)
French Guiana (South America)
Guatemala (Mesoamerica)
Guyana (South America)
Honduras (Mesoamerica)
Italy (Europe)
Mexico (Mesoamerica)
Nicaragua (Mesoamerica)
Panama (Mesoamerica)
Peru (South America)
Paraguay (South America)
Suriname (South America)
Uruguay (South America)
United States (North America)
Venezuela (South America)
South Africa (Africa & Madagascar)
Madagascar (Africa & Madagascar)
Colombia (South America)
China (Asia)
Burma (Asia)
Russian Federation (Asia)
Thailand (Asia)
South Korea (Asia)
Pakistan (Asia)
Nepal (Asia)
Japan (Asia)
India (Asia)
Bhutan (Asia)
Caribbean (Caribbean)

Note: This information is based on publications available through Tropicos and may not represent the entire distribution. Tropicos does not categorize distributions as native or non-native.

Anhui, Chongqing, Fujian, Gansu, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Hebei, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Nei Mongol, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Liaoning, E Qinghai, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Xizang, Yunnan, Zhejiang [Bhutan, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Russia, Thailand; almost cosmopolitan].

Cosmopolitan weed

Endemic to Ecuador, where it is known from the type collection, recorded before 1927 on the banks of the Río Machángara, in Guápulo (Pichincha province). This locale is currently inside the metropolitan area of Quito. The holotype was apparently destroyed in the Berlin herbarium during the Second World War, but the isotype is in the US herbarium in Washington, D.C. No specimens of this species are housed in Ecuadorean museums.

Distribution: A cosmopolitan weed.

Almost cosmopolitan.

"

Flower

In axillary pseudo-umbels, 1-6-flowered; yellow. Flowering throughout the year.

Fruit

An oblong capsule, tapering above, puberulous; seeds many, ovoid or ellipsoid, transversely ridged. Fruiting throughout the year.

Field tips

Branchlets creeping, rooting at nodes, softly pilose.

Leaf Arrangement

Caulescent

Leaf Type

Digitate

Leaf Shape

Obcordate

Leaf Apex

Emarginate

Leaf Base

Cuneate

Leaf Margin

Entire

"

Annuals or short-lived perennials. Stems to 50 cm but often shorter, creeping, ascending to semierect, variably pubescent with adpressed simple hairs. Rootstock a slender taproot, sometimes woody; stems several, freely rooting at nodes in contact with soil; stolons absent. Stipules small, rectangular to auriculate. Leaves alternate or pseudoverticillate; petiole 1-8(-13) cm; leaflet blades obcordate, 0.3-1.8 × 0.4-2.3 cm, green or suffused purplish red, variably adaxially and abaxially pubescent, apex deeply emarginate. Inflorescences umbellate, (2-)1-5(-7)-flowered; peduncle usually slightly longer than petioles; bracts linear-lanceolate, 2-4 × ca. 1 mm. Pedicel 4-15(-20) mm, deflexed or horizontal in fruit, densely strigose. Sepals oblong-lanceolate, 3.5-5 × 1.2-2 mm, margin ciliate especially at apex. Petals bright yellow, oblong-obovate, 6-8 × 3-4 mm. Capsule long cylindric, 8-25 × 2-3 mm, 5-sided, strigose with abundant simple hairs and a few septate hairs on dehiscence sutures. Seeds brown to brownish red, 5-14 per locule, ovoid-oblong, 1-1.5 × 0.8-1 mm, transversely ridged. Fl. and fr. Feb-Oct. 2n = 24.

Plants creeping, pubescent, rooting at the nodes. Leaflets 4—15 mm long, 8—32 mm broad, obcordate, pilose-tomentose. Flowers solitary or in 2—5 flowered axillary umbels. Pedicel 5—15 mm long, deflexed in fruit. Bracts 3—5, linear. Sepals 5, linear lanceolate, pilose. Petals 5, yellow. Filaments glabrous. Carpels 5, pubescent; styles longer than the shorter stamens. Capsule 1—2.5 cm long, subcylindric, pubescent. Seeds 1.5 mm long, brown, transversely ribbed.

300-2900 m

"Prostrate herbs with creeping stem, rooting at lower nodes. Leaves digitately 3-foliolate; leaflets 0.5-1.5 x 0.6-2 cm, broadly obcordate, base cuneate, apex emarginate; petioles 1.5-3 cm long. Flowers yellow, solitary or in axillary umbels; peduncles 4-10 cm long; pedicels 0.5-1 cm long; bracts 2, 3-4 mm long, linear-lanceolate. Sepals 5, 2-3 mm long, ovate-lanceolate. Petals 5, 5-6 x 3-4 mm, ovate-lanceolate. Stamens 10, in two rows. Ovary 5-celled; ovules many; styles 5, distinct. Capsules 0.8-1.5 x 0.3-0.5 cm, linear, puberulous outside. Seeds many, minute, brown."

"Habit: A small branched, diffuse herb, upto 20cm."

Acetosella corniculata (Linnaeus) Kuntze; Oxalis corniculata f. erecta Makino; O. corniculata subsp. repens (Thunberg) Masamune; O. corniculata var. repens (Thunberg) Zuccarini; O. corniculata subsp. subglabra (Kuntze) Masamune; O. corniculata var. taiwanensis Masamune; O. minima Steudel; O. procumbens Steudel; O. repens Thunberg; O. repens var. erecta (Makino) Masamune; O. repens f. speciosa Masamune; O. taiwanensis (Masamune) Masamune; Xanthoxalis corniculata (Linnaeus) Small; X. corniculata var. repens (Thunberg) Nakai; X. repens (Thunberg) Moldenke.

"Degraded forests, also in the plains"

The non-native Creeping Wood Sorrel is occasional in widely scattered areas of Illinois (see Distribution Map). It is probably more common than these records indicate. It is not entirely clear where Creeping Wood Sorrel originated, but it was probably introduced into temperate North America from tropical America or tropical areas of the Old World. Habitats include lawns, gardens, mulched areas around shrubbery, and greenhouses. Potted plants or shrubs from greenhouses are often responsible for introducing Creeping Wood Sorrel into gardens and mulched areas. This wildflower prefers disturbed areas with little competition where the surface of the soil has been exposed.

Mountain slopes, forests, grasslands, riversides, roadsides, fields, wastelands; sea level to 3400 m.

Habitat and Ecology

Systems

• Terrestrial

The nectar and pollen of the flowers attract honeybees, little carpenter bees (Ceratina spp.), small leaf-cutting bees (Hoplitis spp., Osmia spp.), Halictid bees (Halictus spp., Lasioglossum spp.), Syrphid flies, small butterflies, and skippers (see Robertson, 1929). The caterpillars of an oligophagous moth, Galgula partita (The Wedgling), feed on Oxalis spp. Among vertebrate animals, the seeds are eaten by the Deer Mouse, White-Footed Mouse, and various birds, including the Bobwhite Quail, Mourning Dove, Slate-Colored Junco, Field Sparrow, Grasshopper Sparrow, Savannah Sparrow, and Tree Sparrow. The foliage of these plants is browsed by the Cottontail Rabbit and White-Tailed Deer. Because the foliage contains oxalic acid, it can be toxic to sheep and possibly other farm animals if it is eaten in quantity. A small amount of this foliage, however, is harmless.

Oxalis corniculata (Creeping Wood Sorrel) introduced
(Bees suck nectar or collect pollen; flies suck nectar and/or feed on pollen; other insects suck nectar; observations are from Robertson)

Bees (long-tongued)
Apidae (Apinae): Apis mellifera sn; Anthophoridae (Ceratinini): Ceratina dupla dupla sn; Megachilidae (Osmiini): Hoplitis pilosifrons sn, Osmia pumila sn cp

Bees (short-tongued)
Halictidae (Halictinae): Halictus confusus sn, Halictus ligatus sn, Lasioglossum albipennis sn cp, Lasioglossum foxii sn cp, Lasioglossum pectoralis sn cp, Lasioglossum pilosus pilosus sn cp fq, Lasioglossum pruinosus sn cp fq, Lasioglossum tegularis sn cp, Lasioglossum versatus sn cp

Flies
Syrphidae: Toxomerus geminatus sn fp

Butterflies
Nymphalidae: Phyciodes tharos sn fq; Pieridae: Pieris rapae sn, Pontia protodice sn

Skippers
Hesperiidae: Pholisora catullus sn

In Great Britain and/or Ireland:
Foodplant / parasite
Erysiphe russellii parasitises Oxalis corniculata

Foodplant / spot causer
amphigenous, grouped pycnium of Puccinia sorghi causes spots on live leaf of Oxalis corniculata
Remarks: captive: in captivity, culture, or experimentally induced

Zizeeria knysna (Sooty blue) Zizula hylax (Gaika blue)

Common in suitable habitats

Fl. Per. March December.

The following is a representative barcode sequence, the centroid of all available sequences for this species.

Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLDS) Stats
Public Records: 6
Specimens with Barcodes: 17
Species With Barcodes: 1

Year Assessed

Assessor/s

Reviewer/s

Justification

Rounded Global Status Rank: GNR - Not Yet Ranked

Canada

Rounded National Status Rank: NNA - Not Applicable

United States

Rounded National Status Rank: NNR - Unranked

Major Threats

Conservation Actions

The preference is full or partial sun, mesic conditions, and a fertile loose soil. This weedy wildflower can spread aggressively.