Oxalis acetosella
Wood sorrel
How do you recognise wood sorrel?
A delicate herb 5–10 cm tall whose leaf divides into three pale green heart-shaped leaflets. The leaflets are 1–2 cm long and fold downwards at night and in bad weather. The flowers are 8–12 mm across and white, with lilac veins in the petals and a yellow spot at the base.
What is it confused with?
Clover leaflets are oval rather than heart-shaped, and clover flowers sit in a dense rounded head. Wood sorrel carries its white flowers singly.
Where does wood sorrel grow, and when does it flower?
Grows in mesic and moist groves, herb-rich woodland, shady spruce forest, and nutrient-rich mires. Flowering is in May and June.
Can you collect it for a herbarium?
Wood sorrel is common in spruce forest, and one leaf with a flower is enough for a herbarium. Careful. Do not taste this plant. On the label: Wood sorrel has other local names, but write the standard name on the label.
Did you know?
The leaflets fold down in the evening and open again in the morning, and repeat the movement in rain. The plant spreads by an underground rootstock into wide mats across the spruce forest floor.
Where does wood sorrel grow in Finland?
The map shows where the species has been recorded. Darker squares mean more observations.
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Observations: GBIF · Map: CARTO, OpenStreetMap
Sources: fi.wikipedia.org
Identify plants with your phone
Linnea identifies a plant from a photo and tells you its name and its story. Every find takes its own numbered place in your herbarium, with the day and the town where you found it.
