Lake Quinault, Oxalis

October, 2020

Thank you, Ruby Begonia! Your identification of the Oxalis tuber, in your comment in the most recent blog post about the Hoh Rain Forest, took me on an internet journey to learn more wonderful things about the world around me.

For those who don’t remember that photo with the light green “thing” that was floating on top of the water, here’s the photo in question from the blog post …

Look at that light green blocky, stepped, round thing. Pretty weird looking “thing”, eh? But now we know what it is, and we know that it’s a perfectly normal, natural “thing”. It’s an Oxalis tuber.

Ruby’s last name isn’t really Begonia, but she loves flowers and all manner of other plants so she adopted that “user name” on this blog. I think her name is pretty cute. 🙂

Anyway, Ruby identified that floating “thing” as an Oxalis tuber. I’d never heard of the name/word Oxalis, much less did I know that they have tubers. But with just a bit of research online, I learned a lot about these small plant-life folks that we call Oxalis.

And, in looking back through my 250 photos of that walk in the Hoh Rain Forest, I realized I had taken a pretty darn good photo of some Oxalis plants. Here’s that photo …

That’s what Oxalis look like above-ground in the wild in this part of the world. Who would have thought that these quite small, unobtrusive plants would have such important tubers underneath them, and such an important function in the world of humans. As Ruby says, they are edible and medicinal. As well, there are a number of varieties used as house plants and as attractive outdoor plants. These little Oxalis folks are work horses!

Oxalis is sometimes called false shamrock, or sourgrass, or wood sorrell, among other names. They grow everywhere, all over this planet, except in the Arctic and Antarctica. And, as Ruby says, they are edible and medicinal, the tubers and the leaves. There are a few websites that say the leaves are toxic to pets and children, but maybe that’s just certain varieties of Oxalis, since some Oxalis do have leaves that are edible.

For instance, the leaves are a super source of vitamin C. Sailors on those old wooden sailing ships years ago called this plant “scurvy grass” because eating the leaves helped prevent scurvy because of the leaves’ high vitamin C content.

The triangular green leaves tend to open up, to flatten out, when there’s sunlight on them, as the plant in the upper left corner of the photo above is doing. Likewise, the leaves tend to close, or to fold, when in full shade. The scientific word for this process is “photoinhibition”. The process has to do with ultra violet light. HERE is a scientific website that talks about the process. Even that website admits that the process “is still not fully understood”.

Do a little research online and you’ll find tons of information about this important plant, Oxalis. Indigenous people all over the world have used this plant for millenia, for food and for medicine.

You readers are the best! Your comments, your thoughts, your knowledge, your questions have taught me so much. Please keep on commenting, keep on sharing, keep on asking. Thank you to everyone!!

Ruby, please feel free to add more information, explain, correct me! Etc. 🙂 Use the comment section to add more info and/or to reply to anyone who comments. Your input is greatly appreciated.