28 Nebraskaland • August-September 2021
Wood-Sorrels
Story and photos by Gerry Steinauer, Botanist
n a hot summer day, I often pop a wood-sorrel's clover-
like leaf into my mouth to experience a burst of citrusy
tartness. The practice is a long tradition, as for millennia
Native Americans have enjoyed them.
Three species of wood-sorrel are native to our state. The
yellow-fl owered yellow wood-sorrel (Oxalis stricta) and
gray wood-sorrel (O. dillenii) are common, weedy species
that bloom spring through fall in lawns, gardens, pastures
and other disturbed habitats. The former is an annual to
short-lived perennial of eastern Nebraska, while the latter
is a perennial found statewide. The two species are nearly
identical in appearance, and even botanists must resort to
a hand lens or microscope to distinguish them: gray wood-
sorrel has more hairy, gray-green leaves while yellow wood-
sorrel has less hairy, green leaves. Botanists once considered
them a single species.
Violet wood-sorrel (O. violacea) is an uncommon, perennial
of eastern Nebraska prairie. This spring-blooming, colony-
former has vibrant violet fl owers and larger, fl eshier leaves
than the yellowed-fl owered Oxalis, which I fi nd more
O
A Burst of Tartness
Yellow wood-sorrel growing in the author's Aurora garden.
