OXALIS PES-CAPRAE

Family and Genus:- See- OXALIDACEAE

Common Names:- Bermuda buttercup, Cape sorrel.

The common names are rather misleading as it is neither a native of Bermuda nor a

buttercup, this southern African geophyte was already known in Crete in the 1880s.

Homotypic Synonyms:- None

Meaning:- Oxalis (Gr) Acid-salt, a name used by Nicander of Colophon the 2nd

century BC), Greek poet and physician, and refers to the taste of sorrel.

Pes-caprae (L) Nanny-goat's foot.

General description:- Sparsely hairy, tufted, perennial.

Bulb:-

1) Deeply-buried, which emits an annual, ascending, subterranean stem bearing

bulbils and a rosette of leaves at soil level.

Leaves:-

1) Petioles, up to 20 cm.

2) Leaflets, 8-20 x 12-30 mm, obcordate, emarginate, often flecked with brown

spots.

Flowers:-

1) Infundibuliform in umbellate cymes. (sometimes double flowered),

2) Petals, 20-25 mm, yellow.

Fruit:-

1) Capsule, short, rarely formed.

Key features:-

1) Petals, yellow.

2) Aerial stem, absent.

3) Bulbils, present at the base of plant.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Olive groves, orchards, cultivated and fallow fields, roadsides. 0-500(-800)

m. sometime very abundant.

Distribution:- Widespread invasive species throughout the Mediterranean.

Widespread and common on Crete. (Introduced).

Flowering time:- (Nov-)Jan-May.

Photos by:- Steve Lenton