Common yellow wood-sorrel
Prepared by Jennifer L. D’Appollonio, Assistant Scientist, University of Maine, Orono, ME 04469. Updated February 2018.
Scientific name: Oxalis stricta L.; also O. europaea Jord.
Common name(s): common yellow wood-sorrel, common yellow oxalis, yellow wood-sorrel, upright yellow-sorrel, lemon clover, sourgrass
Links: USDA PLANTS Profile , NPIN Profile, Go Botany
Images: (to see enlargements [PC]: click on image, then right click and choose “view image”)
-
- in prune blueberry field
-
- leaves close in the evening
-
- stem detail
-
- in flower, early July, note upright pedicel
-
- flower detail
Description:
– perennial
– leaves taste lemony, close in the evening
-leaves are
- compound
- alternate
- entire
- rounded-oblong
-can grow up to 20 inches tall
-fruit capsules explode seeds away from the plant
– generally flowers June to August in Maine
– may be confused with O. dillenii, which has flowers/seed capsules on pedicels which curve downward, or O. florida; see left sidebar of Go Botany webpage
Habitat:
-disturbed sites
-meadows and fields
Natural History:
-the flowers and leaves are edible
-The Iroquois and Kiowa used this species for medical treatments
Source(s):
Heinrich, B. 1976. Flowering phenologies: Bog, woodland, and disturbed habitats. Ecology. 57(5):890-899.
Go Botany. “Oxalis Stricta L.” Oxalis Stricta (Common Yellow Wood Sorrel): Go Botany, 2021, gobotany.nativeplanttrust.org/species/oxalis/stricta/.
Michigan State University. “Yellow Woodsorrel – Oxalis Stricta.” Plant & Pest Diagnostics, www.canr.msu.edu/resources/yellow-woodsorrel-oxalis-stricta.