Classification
 Nomenclature
Scientific Name:
Oxalis latifolia Kunth (1822)
Synonymy:
  • = Oxalis vallicola (Rose) R.Knuth (1919)
Vernacular Name(s):
fishtail oxalis
 Description

Perennial acaulous herb with thick, fleshy, glassy white, contractile root below the main bulb which is surrounded by numerous small bulbils; tunic brown; scales 3–7-nerved. Lvs 3-foliolate. Petiole (5)–10–50 cm long, glabrous or sparsely hairy; stipular wing broad, membranous, long-ciliate. Lamina of leaflets equal or nearly so, sessile, 12–50 × 18–80 mm, broadly fishtail-shaped, shallowly and broadly 2-lobed, glabrous except for ± hairy base, finely reticulate beneath, not punctate; calli 0 or inconspicuous. Infl. c. 10–50 cm tall, pseudoumbellate, c. 5–15–(20)-flowered, glabrous or nearly so; pedicels very variable in length, ± deflexed at first, usually glabrous. Bracts at pedicel base, c. 3 mm long, lacking calli. Sepals 3–5.5 mm long, lanceolate-elliptic to elliptic, glabrous; calli 2, orange, prominent, apical. Petals c. 1.2–1.5 cm long, oblong-obovate, pink, glabrous. Stamens at 2 levels; filaments of longer set c. 4–5 mm long, hirsute above, glabrous and dilated below, shorter set sparingly hairy. Styles < stamens, glabrous or hairy. Capsule not seen.

[From: Webb et al. (1988) Flora of New Zealand. Volume 4.]

 Biostatus
Exotic
 Phenology

Flowering: Nov.–Jun.

 Bibliography