Oxalis laxa

Oxalis laxa, commonly called dwarf woodsorrel, is a species of flowering plant from South America in the wood-sorrel family. It is an introduced weed in California.

Description

Dwarf woodsorrel is an annual plant with fibrous roots. Its stems grow upwards to as much as 20 centimeters. It has leaves growing both from the base of the plant and attached to its stems by leaf stems as much as 5 cm long. Its leaves are divided into leaflets that are sparely hairy and about 1.3 cm long.
Its flowers have yellow, oblong petals less than 1.2 cm long. The fruit is an egg-shaped capsule to about 5 mm.

Oxalis laxa was scientifically described and named by William Jackson Hooker and George Arnott Walker Arnott in 1830. It is classified in the genus Oxalis as part of the family Oxalidaceae. It has no accepted varieties, but has four in its synonyms.

Oxalis laxa is known by the common names dwarf woodsorrel or dwarf wood-sorrel.

Dwarf woodsorrel is native to Argentina, Chile, Peru, and the Juan Fernández Islands. It also is introduced in Ecuador. In North America it is an introduced weed in California and has been seen along the North Coast and the Sierra Nevada foothills at elevations of as much as.