| Classification |
| Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Magnoliophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order Type: Eudicots-Rosids I
Order: Oxalidales
Family: Oxalidaceae
Family Common Name: Wood Sorrel Family
Genera: Oxalis |
Defining Features: The leaves
of many species droop or fold in the evening or in cool weather and reopen
in the morning.
Defining Morphology: Floral
Features: Flowers are 5-merous, heterostylous, actinomorphic and bisexual.
Inflorescences are determinate, solitary or umbel-like. Corolla is clawed.
Stamens are united. Ovaries are superior with axile placentation. Fruit
and Seed Features: Dicotyledon. Fruit a ribbed loculicidal capsule or berry.
Vegetative Features: Mostly herbs with bulb-like tuber or fleshy rhizomes,
shrubs and trees. Leaves alternate, palmately compound, with a sour taste.
Leaves have pulvinate leaflets.
Distribution: Widespread in
the tropics and subtropics.
Economic Use: The leaves of
some species and the tubers of others are eaten (Oxalis tuberosa),
while the fruit of one species (Averrhoa carambola) is produced
economically as the "star fruit". The distinctive tripartate
leaves is the source of the Irish "shamrock".
Number of Genera Globally: 6
Number of Species Globally: 880
