Identification: Can someone identify this shamrock, clover type plant?

I've got a little plant I'm unfamiliar with.

It hitchhiked itself into my small collection together with another plant. It can grow fast but is quite fragile. I've gotten quite fond of it because it actually sleeps at night (it folds its litlle leaves downwards and the flowers only open with enough sunlight). It stays quite small but is very good at covering "ground" so I'm now getting it to grow in other pots with larger plants who leave a lot of "ground space".

I've attached a picture of it where its growing together with some hippeastrum yearlings (also known as amaryllis). In this picture its "sleeping". I hope the sun will be shining tomorrow so I can make some pictures with the little yellow flowers.

 

Oxalis corniculata

 

thanks, that is exactly the plant I was looking for.

I've found a better picture of it on the net:

http://www.kulak.ac.be/facult/wet/b...lis corniculata-gehoornde klaverzuring-02.jpg

 

I'm really glad I found your post, although I realize the chances of you checking on a post from a year ago are slim. I recently received some clippings from an Oxalis corniculata as a starter. The woman who I received it from told me that they don't like direct sun, and that was all she told me about care for it. So I have 5 clippings in a cup of water, and I hope that roots will begin to form, so that I can transplant into water. Do you have any care tips?

 

Well thats the beauty of this forum, it will send me an email :)

Its a very delicate little plant but it still survives along my other plants. It indeed doesn't like direct sun allthough a lot can be compensated with a lot of water :)
It doesn't root very deeply, so if you keep it along with other plants in the same pot, you can almost have it on a separate watering scheme, given that the other plant roots much deeper. Do not soak the entire pot, but make sure that always the top of the soil is moist. Then still it will die when in direct sun (like my cactae are), but just before that it will flower and create seeds. Seeds will jump everywhere but I can collect them by sweeping the surroundings where the plant is (mostly that is just beneath the main window). It will do perfectly though when its a meter/yard from the window, where it will get direct sun, but just only shortly.

To get better roots from the clippings you could add some pottingsoil to your water, keep it fluid though untill you are definitely sure they've rooted well. That way you could also distribute it to another pot by just pooring it on the soil in the other pot, as it doesn't respond to well to repotting. The roots are so delicate and it doesn't develop much roots. The best method for reproducing that worked for me is placing another pot just right next to it and let it grow there, it can reach other pots itselves.

You can time its flowering (handy when having visitors over) by not giving water for a few days and start watering once it develops flowers. Just experiment a little as it depends on the weather but it will be something like 2-4 days.

 

Hi, I realize one mans weed is another's prized plant, but you might want to check out the comments on this thread. Doesn't seem to be many problems growing it. Harry

 

Thanks a lot for the suggestions. I realize that most people consider this a weed, but it's a weed someone gave me from Ireland, so I'm going to do my best to keep it alive... and hopefully not have it overtake California :)

 

Ok, good luck. If you've got any questions, just post them here, I'll be informed by email.

 

Is this the same plant? I thought it was clover until I saw the tuber, it was growing around the side of one of the houses where I had to dig a trench.

Bigger images here...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/senseless_/418243851/

 

I don't think it is the same plant, but it looks like it though.
- The flowers are of the same type but bigger
- The leaves are not completely alike and much bigger
- I never saw such a big root attached to my plants
- I never saw that many "plants"/"stems" come out of one root system,
- It doesn't seem to multiply in the way strawberryplants also do. I'm not into the botanical english vocabulary :) But Oxalis corniculata grows stems out of its base that grow sideways and start a new plant a couple of inches away.

But it definitely seems to be of the clover type. Also the little bulbs above the big root is something where farmers use clover for in there grasslands. Clover is known to be able to "catch" Nitrogen(N) from the air and store it in those little bulbs in there roots. Farmers use this in there grasslands (sometimes even 25%) so they can cut down on the artificial fertilizer (amongst other reasons cause the different protein contents of clover is also a good reason). Also the family of plants where beans and peas come from have this ability. That is why Maya's used to seed one or 2 rows of beans between there rows of corn.

 

Hi Senseless,

What you have there is Oxalis tuberosa (Oca; a South American species of Oxalis). The tuber is edible when cooked.

 

Would this be considered invasive in Florida?

I stuck it in a pot because I was transplanting a rose bush when I dug it up.

If it is likely to be a problem I'd rather get rid of it but it probably was planted ten years ago at least if someone did it intentionally, so it must not spread very fast.

 

For a minute I thought there stood Coca, another very popular plant in South America :)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oca

Thanks, Michael!

 

Re: Would this be considered invasive in Florida?

No don't think this would be a problem, you can eat it :) Its cultivated a lot in south america and used as food.

 

Senseless's plant is not Oca, Oxalis tuberosa, but probably O. debilis. In my part of Australia this is one of our most troublesome garden weeds, almost impossible to eradicate short of complete soil removal and replacement.