VIOLET WOOD-SORREL 



Oxalis violacea L. 



April - May It was early May in the Kickapoo Valley 



Oak woods, dry slopes when the photographer came upon violet 



wood-sorrel in bluom in the oak woods. He 

 found it in the sort of place in which it usually grows — the acid soil 

 where black oaks and pignut hickories and yellow star grass are found, 

 a sour soil to support a sour plant. For the word Oxalis means sour, 

 because of the acidulous leaves and the watery, acid stem. 



To the hiker, the sorrels are peculiarly pleasant to find on a warm 

 day in spring. The leaves and stems as well as the tight green pods of 

 seeds are all acid to the taste and are almost as refreshing as a glass of 

 fresh spring water. The three-parted shamrock leaves often have been 

 used in salads, but should be used sparingly because of the oxalic acid 

 which they contain, and which is not good when taken in too great a 

 quantity. 



The violet wood-sorrel has five-parted, lavender-rose flowers on 

 slender, smooth, purplish stems, usually several flowers to a stem. All 

 the leaves and flower stalks spring separately from the hairy little brown 

 corm from which slender roots go down into the dry soil. This is unlike 

 the yellow sorrels which have branching stems. The leaves of Oxalis vio- 

 lacea are silver}^ green with red blotches on each of the heart-shaped 

 leaflets. They are sensitive to changing hours of daylight and fold them- 

 selves together at sundown, to remain so until the increasing light rays 

 of dawTi open them wide again. 



G9 



