Common name

Soursob

Family

Oxalidaceae

Where found

Woodland, grassy areas, gardens, roadsides, and along waterways. Coastal. Sydney area away from the coast. Occasionally elsewhere.

Notes

Introduced perennial herb to 0.45 m tall. The aboveground stems and leaves die back each year. Stem only developed when plants are crowded or shaded. Rhizome fleshy, white. Bulbils on the rhizome and at the base of the lower leaves. Bulbs oval, 8–30 mm long, pointed, pale brown. Flower stalks sparsely hairy. Leaves in a basal rosette, with three bilobed leaflets each 0.5-3 cm long, 3.5-44 mm wide, green, sometimes brown or purple-flecked above, hairless to sparsely hairy, margins hairy, tips rounded, 10–35 mm apart. Stipules membranous, narrow, to about 10 mm long, abruptly tapering into the leaf stalk. Flowers yellow, with 5 petals 15–25 mm long fused together at their bases, in clusters of 3-25 flowers. Flowers open only in sunny conditions. Seed cases not developed in Australia. 

Noxious weed Vic.

PlantNET description:  http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Oxalis~pes-caprae   (accessed 29 January, 2021)