Tenleaf Woodsorrel - Oxalis decaphylla
Railroad Canyon, Black Range, July 23, 2017
On August 12, 2016, we were hiking along a ridge south of Iron Creek Campground in the Black Range when we came upon a group of Oxalis decaphylla, Tenleaf Woodsorrel. It definitely breaks the mold of “three-leaf clover” foliage which I associate with the genus. In the United States, it has a very limited range (New Mexico and Arizona - see BONAP map to the right); in Mexico its range is limited to the central mountain range of the country. On the map, light green indicates that the species is native and not rare in the county indicated.
Scientific synonyms for this species include Acetosella decaphylla (Karl Eduard Kuntze - 1891), Oxalis jaliscana (see specimen below), Oxalis grayi (Rose), and Ionoxalis decaphylla (Joseph Nelson Rose - 1906). Other common English names for this species include Ten-leaved Pink-Sorrel and Gray’s Woodsorrel. Its current description was made by Karl Sigismund Knuth in 1822.
South of Iron Creek Campground
Black Range, NM, USA
Immediately above and two below
This specimen was collected on 12 July 1902 in the state of Jalisco near Guadalajara.
