OXALIS FAMILY
Reading edition
Wood Sorrel Oxalis stricta
Plate 7, fig. 2
Children call this Wood Sorrel with yellow blossoms “Snake Sorrel” and think it poisonous, though without reason. It blooms all summer in woods, fallow fields and along roadsides at 4000-8000 ft. The leaflets fold together and “sleep” at night, as the clovers do. Both the common and the botanical names refer to the sour juice of the stems and leaves, and it is this quality that causes the Violet Wood Sorrel to be used in salads and pies.
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Plate 7
FLAX FAMILY
1 Blue Flax: Linum perenne
OXALIS FAMILY
2 Wood Sorrel: Oxalis stricta
MALLOW FAMILY
3 Rose Mallow: Sidalcea neo-mexicana 7 Red Mallow: Malvastrum coccineum 8 Poppy Mallow: Callirhoe involucrata
SPURGE FAMILY
4 Snow-on-the-Mountain: Euphorbia marginata
GERANIUM FAMILY
5 Storksbill, Alfilaria: Erodium cicutarium 6 Geranium, Cranesbill: Geranium caespitosum
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