Duration: Perennial

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Subshrub

General: Herbaceous perennial to 4 cm long, decumbent with creeping, thick and woody rootstocks, caulescent or acaulescent, the sap acidic.

Leaves: Digitately compound, cauline, the leaflets 3 or more, wedge-shaped, sparsely to copiously strigose, the leaflets to 1.5 cm long, pale green.

Flowers: Inflorescence a cyme, usually 1-3 flowered, on a pedicel less than 2 cm long, the corollas yellow to orange, 8-12 mm long.

Fruits: Capsules dehiscent, 5-celled, 6-18 mm long.

Ecology: Found in chaparral, desert woodland, oak and mixed deciduous woodlands from from 2,000-7,500 ft (610-2286 m); flowering March-November.

Distribution: Ranges from California across Arizona and New Mexico to Texas and south to Guatemala.

Notes: The keys to this species are the thick, woody rootstock and the strigose leaflets. Distinguished from subsp. albicans by the hairs being crisped in the latter while they are straight in this subspecies.

Ethnobotany: Unknown

Etymology: Oxalis is from Greek oxys for sharp, sour, while albicans means tending to white and pilosa means pilose.

Synonyms: None

Editor: SBuckley 2011