Oxalis glabra

Tapyt suring [Afrikaans]

Life > eukaryotes > Archaeoplastida > Chloroplastida > Charophyta > Streptophytina > Plantae (land plants) > Tracheophyta (vascular plants) > Euphyllophyta > Lignophyta (woody plants) > Spermatophyta (seed plants) > Angiospermae (flowering plants) > Eudicotyledons > Core Eudicots > Rosids > Eurosid I > Order: Oxalidales > Family: Oxalidaceae > Genus: Oxalis

Oxalis glabra growing along roadside in fields northeast of Cape Town (between Durbanville and Malmesbury), South Africa. [photos H. Robertson ©]

One of the Sorrels, Oxalis glabra, flowering en masse in winter betwen the burnt skeletons of shrubs after a recent fire in fynbos below the Elandsberg mountains, Western Cape, South Africa. [photo Colin Paterson-Jones ©]

Native to the Western Cape, on sandy flats and lower slopes from Clanwilliam to Caledon. The underground stolons and runners enable it to form large carpets of plants, which form a mass of colour when in flower (April to November).

References

• Manning, J. and Goldblatt, P. 1996. West Coast - South African Wild Flower Guide 7. Botanical Society of South Africa, Kirstenbosch.