OXALIS PES-CAPRAE

Common names: Yellow Oxalis, Bermuda Buttercup, Soursob
Description: Perennial herb. Grows from a pale brown, undrground bulb, capable of producing up to 20 smaller, white underground bulblettes each year.
Flowers: Flowers are bright yellow and arranged in an umbel shape, generally with less than 20 flowers each. Each flower has 10 stamens.
Leaves: Trifoliate leaves arranged to form a clover-like rosette. Each leaflet measures less than 3.5 cm in length and is usually spotted and sometimes hairy underneath.
Reproduction: Fruits and viable seeds have not been spotted in California, although it does flower. The mode of reproduction for oxalis in North America are the underground bulbs. Bulbs may be spread by disturbances such as machinery, humans, birds, or any other soil disturbaces.
Flowering: Generally flowers late fall to early summer.
Habitat and Ecology: Native to the cape region of South Africa.

If eaten in large quantities, it may be poisonous to livestock. This plant, due to the mode of reproduction, forms excessively large mats, shading out other species. It is extremely hard to remove as well.