Gray-Green Woodsorrel, Slender Yellow Woodsorrel, Sheep Sorrel, Sheep Showers
Oxalis dillenii Jacq., Oxalis stricta L.
Oxalidaceae (Woodsorrel Family)
▲young plant
▲ plant with flowers, fruit
▲▼flowering plants
▲▼ illustrations of how flower stalks on Oxalis stricta do not recurve under the flower
Yellow wood-sorrel, Oxalis, Sheep Sorrel, Sheep Showers (Oxalis stricta):
· creeping summer annual or perennial weed that produces rhizomes in the Oxalidaceae (Oxalis) family
· leaves have 3 heart-shaped leaflets-- similar to a clover, but each leaf more "notched" at tip; not a clover or legume
· small, yellow, 5-petalled flowers
· fruit pod an okra-shaped capsule; explodes when ripe, throwing seed several feet away
o gray-green woodsorrel fruit stalks bend down away from stem and pods are held upright (see below)
· both prefer part-shade, adequately moist, fertile soils, but grows about anywhere
· control primarily post-emergent in late spring; sometimes not easily controlled with single chemical-- may require mixture of post-emergents to control
· creeping woodsorrel: similar species; may be perennial in warm areas
o has more reddish leaves
o roots at nodes & produces stolons, not rhizomes
o common as a greenhouse pest