Oxalis pes-caprae
Nodding sorrel ( Oxalis pes - caprae )
The Nodding sorrel, also Low sorrel ( Oxalis pes - caprae, Syn. Oxalis cernua Thunb, Bolboxalis cernua ( Thunb. ) Small), called a species of the genus is sorrel ( Oxalis ). The Latin epithet pes - caprae means Ziegenfuß and probably refers to the short, two-lobed leaflets.
Features
The Nodding sorrel is a perennial herbaceous plant. The plant reaches heights of growth between 10 and 50 centimeters. The rosette consists of up to 20 centimeters long stalked, trefoil, three-piece feathered leaves. The individual leaflets are deeply wrong - cordate and hairy hand.
On long -stalked, doldigen inflorescence are six to twelve funnel- shaped flowers. The buds are nodding, later, the flowers are upright. The hermaphroditic, five petals have a diameter of about 1.5 centimeters. The five sepals are free. The five 2 to 2.5 cm long, lemon-yellow petals are fused at their base. The Oxalis pes - caprae var variety Pleniflora Lowe has double flowers. There are two circles, each with five stamens present. Five carpels are fused into a superior ovaries. The flowering period extends from December to May
The proliferation of occurring in the Mediterranean population is exclusively about breeding nodules that sit on the rhizome because of the three possible forms of flowers with long pistils and stamens vary only one has penetrated into the Mediterranean, and thus pollination is impossible. Therefore, hardly any fruit capsules are formed in the Mediterranean.
Occurrence
This species is an invasive plant in many parts of the world.
The Nodding sorrel is originally from South Africa and was probably the beginning of the 19th century by Carlo Giacinto, a Genoese monk and former curator of Floriana, the Botanical Gardens in Malta, introduced there. Within a few decades the nature spread in Malta, then in the rest of the Mediterranean and even the Atlantic coast of Europe along to the south of Devon, where she has since been naturalized. Likewise, it is naturalized in the Canary Islands, Azores and Madeira. In Malta, the parasitic broomrape Orobanche ramosa has subsp. mutelii on the pitch ends sorrel specialized as a host. The plant can completely destroy stocks of Nick ends sour clover in a few weeks.
As a location preferred the way especially cultivated land, especially under tree crops. In the heyday of Nodding sorrel is not resident as a defining aspect of the landscape.