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Re: Waxing Eloquent with Oxalis

Cyndi Norman wrote:
 
>    Yes, Oxalis pres-caprae (Bermuda Buttercup) brings back so many memories
>    for me, too. We also called it sourgrass and chewed on the long stems
>    topped with slender yellow bells, 
> 
>    The second Oxalis that interests me I keep as a container plant, letting >    it go dormant in the summer.  (Snip)" The
>    leaves are a deep wine purple, while the flowers are fluted rosy pink >    bells that appear in delicate clusters. It's sold as Oxalis triangulata, >    but I think it could also be the O. purpurea 'Grand Duchess' described in >    the Sunset Western Garden Book. 
> 
Cyndi

When we flew in once for a visit to South Australia, we were fascinated
by more than half the paddocks being not green but bright bright yellow.
I made a guess it was mustard,  but later learnt it was actually O.
pes-capri which is an appalling weed in the area and known locally as
"Sour Sops". We do also have it occasionally in New Zealand especially
in warm parts. It infests some old gardens in the warmer parts of my own
district, but fortunately the climate right here seems too cool for it
to flourish.

I don't have your purple leaved oxalis, but I do have a couple which
resemble it in some respects. One is O. purpurea sub sp purpurea. which
has deep browny-purple leaves and large very bright pink funnel-shaped
flowers. It has a white flowered varient, which looks more refined and
there is also a green leaved form (known rather curiously just as 
O purpurea)

The other one is O deppii "Iron Cross" which has very large green
trifoliate leaves which stay up all summer. Each leaf has a marked
purple zone around its centre. This has flowers which sound quite a bit
like your purple variety, (pink, hanging bells) but they appear only
briefly in spring shortly after the leaves first unfold. Obviously one
grows it mainly for the foliage, which is very striking, but tends to
get untidy by autumn when the petiols become very long.

Moira

-- 
Tony & Moira Ryan <theryans@xtra.co.nz>
Wainuiomata, Lower Hutt, New Zealand
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