256 OXALIDACEAE (WOOD SORREL FAMILY) 



outer edge, sensitive, drooping against the stalk when plucked ; 

 this position they also take at night ; petioles long, slender, also 

 finely appressed-hairy. Flowers lemon-yellow, in open cymes of 

 about two to four, on peduncles longer than the leaves, the 

 pedicels slender and divergent, deflexed in fruit. Petals five, 

 withering soon after opening; stamens ten, five long and 

 five short, the filaments united at base; ovary five-celled; five 

 separate styles with terminal stigmas. Capsules large, cylindric, 

 short-pointed, often more than an inch long. Seeds very small, 

 brown, flattened ovoid, covered with transverse wrinkles. 

 (Fig. 180.) 



Means of control 



Prevent seed production by deep hoe-cutting or hand-pulling 

 before the first flowers mature. 



LADY'S SORREL 



Oxalis corniculata, L. 

 (Xanthoxalis corniculata, Small) 



Native. Annual or perennial. Propagates by seeds and by 



stolons. 

 Time of bloom: March to late October at the northern limits of 



range ; throughout the year where not snow-covered. 

 Seed-time: Throughout the year. 

 Range: New Jersey to Kansas, southward to the Gulf States and 



Mexico. 

 Habitat: Fields, roadsides, waste places. 



This plant, like the preceding one, may be called annual, in 

 that it flowers and fruits during its first year of life ; but this 

 species prolongs its existence through its many slender runners. 



Stems low, with spreading branches, those at the base creeping 

 on the ground, three inches to a foot or more long, rooting at the 

 joints, those above sparsely covered with fine, spreading hairs. 

 Leaflets deep green, sometimes with a purplish tinge, notched at the 

 outer edge, nearly smooth, often an inch broad. Flowers yellow, in 

 umbellate or cymose clusters, peduncle and pedicels sparingly hairy, 

 the latter not deflexed in fruit. Capsule smaller than that of the 



