Family | Oxalidaceae

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Gardening | Plant ID

wood-sorrel family

The wood-sorrels often considered shamrocks, are hardy throughout my, hardiness zone 7b-8a, garden. Members of this family typically have divided leaves, the leaflets showing "sleep movements", spreading open in light. Bulbils take on the appearance of a pencil eraser. 

PURPLE OXALIS___________________

Purple Oxalis (Oxalis triangularis)

RED OXALIS

 Oxalis corymbosa DC

WOOD-SORREL 

Wood-sorrel, Oxalis violacea L
Often found in shady yards

The wood-sorrel is a perennial herb. The flower buds or inflorescence are very similar to an umbel, because the pedicels all arise from the same point. They are borne on a long naked peduncle called a scape.

"Oxalis drummondii A. Gray, (for its discoverer, Thomas Drummond, 1780–1835, Scottish botanist and collector in North America), DRUMMOND’S OXALIS. Glabrous perennial; bulb scales 3- ribbed; scapes to 30 cm tall, glabrous, with 4–8 flowers; sepals 5–7 mm long, the apical tubercles ± confluent; petals 15–23 mm long, pinkish purple; capsules 7–9 mm long. Sand or limestone soils, woodlands or prairies; Coryell, Dallas (Reverchon), and Somervell cos., also Brown Co. (HPC) and Fort Hood (Bell or Coryell cos.—Sanchez 1997); South TX Plains and Edwards Plateau, e to Gonz. (Diggs, 1999)

Oxalis violacea L., (violet), VIOLET WOODSORREL. Glabrous perennial; bulb scales 3-ribbed; scapes to 30(–40) cm tall, with 4–19 flowers; sepals 4–6 mm long; petals 14–20 mm long, violet to pinkish purple (rarely white); capsules 4–6 mm long. Sandy open woods, rarely in prairie clay; se and e TX w to West Cross Timbers. Late Mar–early May, repeating sparingly Sep–Oct. and then without leaves. (Diggs, 1999)"*   Native Plant Trust ID

Oxalis Dillenii | Slender Yellow Woodsorrel

Sensitive Plant | Mimosa pudica

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Mimosa is derived from the Greek meaning a mimic, alluding to the fact the leaves of some species are sensitive, and pudica from the Latin: meaning "Pure, chaste, modest, retiring, shy, bashful or shrinking." Liberty Hyde Bailey wrote about this in The Standard Cyclopedia of American Horticulture.

The globose to ovoid purple flower heads on sensitive plant (Mimosa pudica),  are 8–10 mm (0.3–0.4 in) in diameter, making this photograph a 10x enlargement.

Leaves on the Sensitive Plant (Mimosa pudica)

"Don't touch me or I will fold my leaves!"

Plant movements similar to animal movements 

A fascinating phenomenon, Nyctinastic movement is exhibited with the setting sun and decreasing light, the leaflets fold together and the whole leaf droops downward. Prayer plants come to mind.  Seismonastic movement, (from Greek, seismos, shaking), touching the leaves, or shaking the plant, or slight warming of the leaves, or chemical and electrical stimuli, or subjecting the plant to a lack of water, will cause the leaflets to fold together and the whole leaf to droop downwards temporarily. This movement is believed to arise from an enigmatic drop in cell pressure. The sensitive plant is believed to originate from South America. 



Bibliography

1. Hill, John, and Carl . Linné. The Sleep of Plants, and Cause of Motion in the Sensitive Plant: Explain'd ... in a Letter to C. Linnaeus. London: R. Baldwin, 1757. 
2. Lim T.K. (2014) Mimosa pudica. In: Edible Medicinal And Non-Medicinal Plants. Springer, Dordrecht
3. Mancuso, Stefano, The Revolutionary Genius of Plants, 2019.

Grassroots Horticulture 

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