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Oxalis articulata
Also called Pink Oxalis, Large Leaf Wood Sorrel, Pink Shamrock, Purple Wood Sorrel, Shamrock Oxalis, Sour Grass, Rose Shamrock
Pink sorrel is a perennial, tuberous-rooted species from South America that forms clumps of shamrock-like leaves with pink to violet flowers. It spreads by rhizomes and is widely grown as a border or ground cover, and it tolerates drought once established.
Oxalis articulata, known as pink-sorrel, pink wood sorrel, windowbox wood-sorrel, sourgrass, is a perennial species of flowering plant in the genus Oxalis native to Northern Argentina, Southern Brazil and Uruguay. It has been introduced in Europe in gardens and is now naturalized in these areas.
The plant is susceptible to rust (disease due to the fungus Puccinia oxalidis).
Oxalis articulata can be used as ground cover in green zones to inhibit the growth of weeds in such areas and alleviate the need for herbicide. This is due to the allelopathic leachates in the leaves and exudates from the roots of living Oxalis plants which display significant inhibitory activities on the growth of other plants. Oxalate extracts from the leaves have been shown to exhibit anti-fungal properties.
Wood-sorrel · Silver Shamrock · Radishroot woodsorrel · Alpine woodsorrel · Oxalis ambigua · Oxalis arenaria · Oxalis aureoflava · Oxalis ausensis · Barrelier's woodsorrel · Oxalis bifida · Red-flower woodsorrel · Oxalis brasiliensis
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Oxalis articulata by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
Pet safety from the ASPCA toxic and non-toxic plant lists.
