| General Information |
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| Distribution | The largest genus in the Oxalidaceae with approximately 500 species, cosmopolitan in distribution, but concentrated in Central and South America and South Africa.
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Habit
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Caulescent or acaulescent, annual or perennial herbs, often with bulbs or rhizomes.
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Leaves
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Leaves palmately or pinnately compound, often folding at night, less commonly unifoliolate; stipules sometimes present.
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Flowers
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Inflorescences a 1 to numerous-flowered cyme, these often umbellate, axillary, or arising directly from bulbs. Flowers on pedicel articulate at base and sometimes also below calyx; sepals shortly connate; petals yellow, white, pink to red or violet, coherent above claw; stamens 10, 5 short and 5 longer, longer ones sometimes with abaxial tube; ovules in 1–2 rows per locule, styles 5, stigmas cylindrical and minutely bilobed or peltate.
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Fruit
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Fruit a loculicidal capsule.
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Seeds
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Seeds 1 to ca. 10 per locule, with a sterile fleshy aril at base that turns inside out and explosively releases the seeds, seed coat smooth or with transverse ridges or longitudinal furrows.
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Notes
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The name is derived from the Greek oxys, acid, in reference to the sour taste of the oxalic acid in these plants.
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Contributor
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Nancy Khan
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