Angiosperms (Flowering Plants) • Earth.com

Mountain woodsorrel

(Oxalis acetosella)

galery
en

Description

Oxalis montana is a species of flowering plant in the family Oxalidaceae known by the common names mountain woodsorrel, wood shamrock, sours and white woodsorrel. It may also be called common woodsorrel, though this name also applies to its close relative, Oxalis acetosella. This species is a perennial herb native to eastern North America, including eastern Canada and the north-central and eastern United States, and Appalachian Mountains. The Latin specific epithet montana refers to mountains or coming from mountains. Oxalis montana is a perennial herb which grows in patches connected by subterranean rhizomes. There are no stems, just clumps of leaves growing to about 10 centimetres (3.9 inches) in maximum height. The leaves are each made up of three heart-shaped leaflets. The leaflets move, folding and unfolding, in response to sunlight. There are two types of flowers, blooms that open and cleistogamous flowers that remain closed and self-pollinate. The flower color is variable. Environmental factors may cause variation; flowers growing at higher elevations have less color in the veins on the petals, while the veins of those at lower elevations have a deeper pink-purple coloration. The fruit is a capsule. The plant reproduces sexually by seed and asexually by sprouting large colonies from the rhizome. Some populations produce no flowers in a given season and reproduce only vegetatively. Oxalis is a large genus of flowering plants in the wood-sorrel family Oxalidaceae, comprising over 550 species. 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 (sometimes written "woodsorrels" or "wood-sorrels") as they have an acidic taste reminiscent of the sorrel proper (Rumex acetosa), which is only distantly related. Some species are called yellow sorrels or pink sorrels after the color 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.

Taxonomic tree:

Domain:
Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Magnoliophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order:Oxalidales
Family:Oxalidaceae
Genus:Oxalis
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