http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OxalisOxalis
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Oxalis, Wood Sorrel
Oxalis pes-caprae: Bermuda-buttercup
Oxalis pes-caprae: Bermuda-buttercup
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Magnoliophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Oxalidales
Family: Oxalidaceae
Genus: Oxalis
Binomial name
See text
Species
See text.
Oxalis is the largest genus in the wood sorrel family Oxalidaceae. Of the
approximately 900 known species in the Oxalidaceae, 800 belong to Oxalis.
Many of the species are known as Wood Sorrel or Woodsorrel. The genus occurs
throughout most of the world, except for the polar areas; species diversity
is particularly rich in tropical Brazil and Mexico and in South Africa.
These plants are annual or perennial. The leaves are divided into three to
ten or more round, heart-shaped or lanceolate leaflets, arranged in a whorl
with all the leaflets of roughly equal size. The majority of species have
three leaflets; in these species, the leaves are superficially similar to
those of some clovers, though clovers differ in having the leaflets not in a whorl,
and of unequal size with two smaller side leaflets and one larger central leaflet.
Some species exhibit rapid changes in leaf angle in response to temporarily high
light intensity. The flowers have five petals, usually fused at the base, and ten stamens;
the petal colour varies from white to pink, red or yellow. The fruit is a small
capsule containing several seeds. The roots are often tuberous, and several species
also reproduce vegetatively by production of bulbils, which detach to produce new plants.