28 FLOWERS OF THE WOODS. AND COPSES 
Woods, where there is little or no undergrowth to outgrow this 
tender little wild flower, are the places in which to look for Wood 
Sorrel. It is a shade-loving plant which may be found growing on the 
sloping banks of little tree-sheltered ravines removed from woods, but 
is most luxuriant and widespread in the latter. 
This delicate, pretty, bulbous plant has no aerial stem. The leaves 
are ternate or divided into 3, and consist of 3 leaflets, hairy, stalked, 
three-nerved, the leaf-stalks not winged. The root is toothed and 
creeping. 
The scape or flowering stem is longer than the leaves, with two 
bracts or leaflike organs at the top, and is single-flowered. The flowers 
are white with purple veins, and of two kinds, the smaller being 
cleistogamic, like the Violet. When flowering is over the scape or 
flowering stem bends down, and when the seed is ripe it becomes 
erect. When ripe the fruits may be opened at the angles, and the 
seeds are thrown to a distance. The capsule is divided into five 
chambers, with two black, smooth seeds in each attached to the central 
pillar. 
Three inches is the greatest height of this lowly, graceful flower, 
which blooms in April and May. It is perennial, increasing by offsets. 
Wood Sorrel is dimorphic, i.e. there are two or more forms, and the 
flowers are cleistogamic, like those of the Violet. Here the smaller ones 
are cleistogamic and bury the capsules in the ground, and the larger 
ones are normal and conspicuous. The anthers and stigma mature 
together. In the rain the flowers bend over. There are five fleshy 
nectaries or knobs at the base of the petals. The flowers open between 
9g am. and 6 p.m. The dimorphic characteristics, with the variations 
between long- and short-styled forms, affords greater chance of cross- 
pollination. 
Wood Sorrel disperses its seeds immediately around it. When the 
capsule is mature it is stretched, and this causes it to split open and 
eject the seeds, by a catapult motion, to some distance. Really the 
seeds eject themselves. The cells of the inner layer are small and 
swollen. The coat splits down one side, and the inner cells expand, 
turn the coat inside out, the inner and outer coat changing place. 
This plant is a lover of humus, and requires a humus soil, being 
also to a certain extent a clay-lover, requiring a clayey soil. 
The Wood Sorrel is infested by no fungi or insect pests. 
Oxalis, Pliny, is derived from the Greek oxws, sharp, acid, and acefo- 
sella is from Latin acetum, sour wine, vinegar; Sorrel is derived from 
sour. 
