Trading weeds

Nhu Nguyen xerantheum@gmail.com
Thu, 07 Feb 2013 10:26:32 PST
I too would like to add my two cents about one of my most favorite genera.

The genus is huge, about 500 species, and about 1/3 of it grows as bulbous
forms in South Africa. The rest are from South America. Of the ones in
South America, a number of them make bulbs, and the rest do not make bulbs
as all. Many grow as succulent scrambling stems and some have woody stems.
The non-bulbous ones tend to be in more desiccating environment or in
higher altitudes.

If anyone is worried about growing Oxalis that spread by bulbs, try growing
some of the rhizomatous ones like O. articulata/floribunda group. These are
most easy to obtain. Oxalis squamata makes a wonderful display but I have a
hard time propagating it by cutting. Oxalis (maritima) tortuosa has
interesting leaf form. The woody/semi-woody stemmed ones that are most easy
to find are O. sanmiguelii (wrongly named in the trade as herrerae) and O.
peduncularis. The succulent stemmed ones are hard to find the in the trade,
except for Oxalis tuberosa (oca). These are all summer growers. The picky
ones tend to be the tropical ones that you would need a greenhouse to grow.
But they are wonderful plants if you have the space.

Here are a few photos:
Oxalis sanmiguelii
http://flickr.com/photos/xerantheum/…
http://flickr.com/photos/xerantheum/…

Oxalis peduncularis
http://flickr.com/photos/xerantheum/…

Oxalis articulata/floribunda group
http://flickr.com/photos/xerantheum/…
http://flickr.com/photos/xerantheum/…

Oxalis tortuosa with large carrot-like tuber(?)
http://flickr.com/photos/xerantheum/…

Oxalis squamata
http://flickr.com/photos/xerantheum/…
http://flickr.com/photos/xerantheum/…

Oxalis hedysaroides 'Rubra' or 'Fern Fire' = greenhouse
http://flickr.com/photos/xerantheum/…
http://flickr.com/photos/xerantheum/…
http://flickr.com/photos/xerantheum/…

Oxalis aff. dispar = greenhouse
http://flickr.com/photos/xerantheum/…
http://flickr.com/photos/xerantheum/…

Oxalis gigantea = winter growing from Chile but it's wonderful!
http://flickr.com/photos/xerantheum/…
http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/…

Nhu

On Thu, Feb 7, 2013 at 12:12 AM, Michael Mace <michaelcmace@gmail.com>wrote:

> Fair enough, but since there are many people on the list who don't
> necessarily have much experience with Oxalis, I'd like to add my two cents:
> I think the genus is far too diverse to make a blanket statement about its
> invasiveness.  There are probably hundreds of Oxalis species.  Some are
> notorious weeds.  Some are so picky that they're almost impossible to grow
> in captivity.  Most are somewhere in between.
>



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