Description
The plant belongs to the Oxalis family. Today, the existence of more than eight hundred species of wood sorrel is known. The birthplace of the flower is the South American continent. It can also be found in Central America and South Africa. In the nature of European countries, wood sorrel is presented in the form of weeds.
Three- and four-lobed leaves on elongated petioles attract attention with their exotic shape and color. Some varieties have leaves with up to nine lobes. As you can see in the photo of the sorrel, the color of the leaves can be different - red, green, purple.
Another interesting nuance is that before rain, at night or from bright sun, almost all plant varieties fold their leaves.
Oxalis flowers are small. They are assembled into a socket. Color range – yellow, purple, white, pink.
The most popular type of indoor oxalis is four-leaf oxalis. This is what most home plant lovers prefer. In addition to it, triangular oxalis is usually chosen for the home.
The most famous type of garden oxalis is ferruginous oxalis. This flower belongs to the groundblood family. Its height is no more than 10 cm. It is a small ornamental bush with bluish-green leaves. The color of the flowers is lilac-pink.
Also, for the garden, sometimes they choose common sorrel, popularly called hare cabbage.
Common oxalis
This is the same “hare cabbage” that our forests are full of - a miniature stemless plant with very noticeable wide three-lobed leaves. Oxalis belongs to the so-called winter-green plants - those that are able to winter without shedding their leaves, but leaving them green. Unlike evergreens, the lifespan of each leaf is less than a year.
- 15 winter greens for your garden
Do you want your garden to delight you with greenery even in winter and early spring? Pay attention to winter greens!
Oxalis blooms in May-June with small five-petaled flowers, white with pink-violet veins and a yellow spot at the base. It is interesting that oxalis has perfectly adapted to the conditions of the dark and humid taiga, where pollination by insects is difficult - in extreme cases, along with ordinary flowers, it produces another special type of flowers, closed ones, which are capable of self-pollinating.
The seeds of the common sorrel, after ripening, are thrown out of the box over a long distance, which is why some gardeners consider it a harmful weed that can self-sow to take over territory from noble crops. And they are not always wrong, the same sour sorrel (almost never found here) is a difficult to eradicate weed in corn fields in the USA and Canada.
- Carefully! Ornamental plants that can quickly become weeds
Not all ornamental crops are equally safe for your garden. How to recognize and stop an aggressor plant?
Other summer residents are happy to sow this charming crumb on their own plots, most often under trees, in order to create a real corner there in the natural (forest) eco-style, so fashionable today.
Oxalis (as its name suggests) prefers acidic, well-moistened soils rich in humus in a shady corner of the garden. Propagated by seeds and division of the bush. Growing rapidly, it forms a dense green carpet, abundantly covered with white flashes of flowers.
Many people are familiar with the pleasant sour taste of its leaves, due to the presence of several organic acids (mainly oxalic) and vitamins C, A, P. But be careful - if in the amount of several leaves this is a delicacy and can be used in cooking (soups, salads, filling for omelettes , vitamin drinks), giving a special taste to dishes and increasing appetite, then in large doses it is poison, especially for the kidneys!
Common oxalis is also used in folk medicine as part of decoctions and infusions that have diuretic and choleretic, anti-inflammatory, anthelmintic, wound-healing effects, and also as an antidote in case of arsenic or mercury poisoning. To use it for these purposes, the sorrel grass is cut (under no circumstances pulled out!) a couple of centimeters above ground level and dried in the shade.
- What medicinal herbs and plants are collected in May (41 photos and descriptions)
Keep a table of medicinal herbs and other plants that you can harvest right now.
Location and lighting
Oxalis loves bright, diffused lighting. It is optimal to place a pot with a plant on a window facing west or east. If this is not possible, then you can place the plant on a southern windowsill.
But you should definitely take care of shading. Also try not to create drafts - they can negatively affect the well-being of oxalis.
Benefit
- Oxalis has a diuretic property and removes bile from the body.
- With the help of this plant you can get rid of helminths.
- When using the herb externally, you can achieve speedy healing of wounds and abrasions.
- Oxalis helps cope with inflammatory processes and can also be used as a hemostatic agent.
- The plant helps fight heat and high temperatures.
Humidity and watering
Oxalis does not have any special requirements for humidity. Spraying the leaves is allowed only in the warm season. Moreover, the water must be settled or boiled.
The plant loves abundant watering. But it is necessary to ensure that the water in the soil does not stagnate - this can lead to rotting. By winter, watering volumes are reduced.
Oxalis four-leaf (Oxalis Deppe)
But this plant, in contrast to its more modest forest “relative,” is already much more popular among both gardeners and indoor gardeners. And all thanks to the bright red-violet flowers, pleasing to the eye from early summer to early autumn, and the shape of the leaves, unusual for most representatives of the genus - four-lobed, reminiscent of a “lucky clover”. In addition, these leaves are not just green, but with a large dark mark at the base, which can be of different shapes, sizes and colors (reddish, purple-brown, dark purple).
This plant has many garden forms and varieties, the most commonly grown being Iron Cross.
Unlike the shade-tolerant common sorrel, four-leaf sorrel prefers well-lit places and a very slightly acidic or neutral light earth mixture (for example, peat soil, leaf soil and sand in a ratio of 2:2:1).
Before leaves form, plants are rarely watered, and after they begin to actively develop (usually in the second half of spring and throughout the summer), this sorrel requires abundant watering and frequent spraying. Inspect the plant regularly, because... it is often affected by aphids and spider mites.
The plant does not tolerate frost, so in regions with negative temperatures, rhizomes are dug up in the fall and stored until spring in a cool, dry place. When growing four-leaved wood sorrel in pots, it is not necessary to dig up the rhizomes, but watering should be stopped for 2-4 months, and the pots should be moved to a cool place (8-10°C).
Transfer
Young flowers need annual replanting. After four years, the step between plant transplants should be increased to two years. It is better to replant sorrel in the spring. A drainage system is required.
Oxalis is a rather beautiful and at the same time undemanding flower. She will decorate any flower bed. In addition, pots with plants can be used to decorate loggias and balconies.
Oxalis triangularis (Oxalis Regnelli)
And as a popular houseplant, this species of oxalis is noticeable not primarily by its white or light pink flowers, but by its foliage of an unusual, very rich red-violet color, often with lighter “smeared” areas in the center of each leaf. There are also varieties of this sorrel with green or reddish leaves.
This plant is heat-loving, but otherwise very unpretentious. It is suitable for diffused sunlight (western or eastern windows), absence of drafts, frequent and abundant watering in the warm season, and complex fertilizing a couple of times a month.
At home, propagation of triangular sorrel is most often carried out using parts of thickened rhizomes, although the seed method is also suitable. Plants are transferred to fresh substrate every spring at the beginning of the growth period.
How to plant correctly in the country
Garden gerbera - how to grow in the garden
Garden sorrel, planting and caring for it in open ground is not difficult. It can become a real decoration of any flower bed. Although the flower is not whimsical during the growth period, it is worth taking care of the correct planting of the specimen from the very beginning. Particular attention is usually paid to temperature indicators and soil composition.
Temperature at different times of the year
Growing the species is possible only if the temperature regime is chosen correctly. But it is even more important to choose the right temperature indicators during the planting period. It is carried out at a time when the air temperature both day and night is not lower than +10 ℃.
Planting is carried out in autumn and spring. The main thing is that the weather is good. In autumn you can plant bushes as early as mid-September, and in spring as early as the end of April.
Soil features
The flower loves well-fertilized soil with an average acidity level. As a base, you should use a mixture of turf soil, humus and ordinary garden soil. The proportion of these components is represented by the following ratio: 1:1:1.
Mix all parts of the substrate and place in a pre-prepared well. After this, you will have to fertilize the soil more than once.
Rules for caring for garden sorrel in open ground
Garden perennial tradescantia in landscape design
In order for the sorrel to develop normally and not die in the open ground, it is necessary to properly care for it. The flower has a very important property - it is quite frost-resistant, but still requires proper preparation for wintering.
Plant care
Important aspects of care are proper watering and timely feeding. The bushes, although low, bloom luxuriantly for a long period. This means that a huge amount of nutrients from the soil is consumed.
Fertilizer and watering
The flower loves moisture, so in summer it needs to be watered every 2 days. You need to carefully monitor the condition of the earthen clod around the stems. If the soil is waterlogged, the wood sorrel may die.
As for fertilizing, the plant has a special schedule for carrying out this procedure:
- The first feeding is done in the spring, after removing the winter shelter.
- The second is at the moment the buds appear.
- The third - 1 month after the second.
Note! Complex and mineral versions of nutrients can be used as fertilizers. Organic types of fertilizers are considered ideal - mullein solution, humus.
The most comfortable conditions for plants in the house - table
| Season | Lighting | Temperature | Humidity |
| Spring Summer | Soft and diffused light, since direct rays of the sun can leave burns on the delicate foliage of the flower. Light partial shade is suitable. You can place it on the windowsill of an eastern or western oriented window or grow it on a balcony or loggia, shaded from direct sunlight. | +20–25 оС | Spraying in the morning and evening hours. |
| Autumn winter | Penumbra. There is no need to add additional light to the plant. | +14–18 оС | Tolerates dry indoor air well; no additional spraying is required. |
The most common diseases and pests of wood sorrel, their signs, prevention and treatment measures (table)
| Pest/disease | Signs | Reason for appearance | Treatment |
| Spider mite |
| Dry indoor air |
|
| Aphid |
|
| |
| Fusarium |
| Too much moisture and stagnation of water in the pot |
|
Pests and diseases of oxalis (photo)
Fusarium appears as a result of excessive moisture
Aphids accumulate on the back of the leaf
Spider mites appear on the plant when kept in a room with too dry air
