Oxalidaceae
Wood sorrel family
Plants with trifoliate leaves that fold at night (nyctinasty). Sour taste from oxalic acid. Includes wood sorrel and carambola (star fruit).
Browse all 10 species ↓
Trifoliate (or multi-leafleted) leaves that visibly fold down and close at night or when touched; five-petalled flowers with sour, oxalic-acid-rich tissue ripen into a capsule that, in star fruit, forms a distinctive five-ridged, star-shaped cross-section.
Sharply sour oxalic acid runs throughout the leaves and fruit — pleasant in small amounts in wood sorrel and star fruit, but toxic to kidneys in large quantities.
Which Oxalidaceae species is this?
Answer what you can see and narrow it down to a single Oxalidaceae species.
How to recognise the Oxalidaceae family
- 01
Leaf arrangement: alternate
- 02
Leaf type: trifoliate
- 03
Growth forms: herb/shrub/tree
- 04
Inflorescence: cymose umbel
- 05
Fruit: capsule/berry
Typical leaf characters
Characters typical of the family — individual species can vary.
Typical flower & fruit
- Flower symmetryVariable
- InflorescenceVariable
- FruitBerry
Typical of the family — flowering plants only; species can vary.
Notable members
All 10 species in OXALIDACEAE
- Bilimbi, Tree Sorrel, KamiasAverrhoa bilimbi
- Carombola Apple, Star Fruit TreeAverrhoa carambola
- Slender Tree PlantBiophytum reinwardtii
- Little Tree Plant, Sensitive PlantBiophytum sensitivum
- Common Sorrel, Indian Sorrel, Yellow Wood, Creeping Oxalis, Creeping Wood-Sorrel, IndaOxalis corniculata
- Large-Flowered Pink SorrelOxalis debilis
- Broad-Leaved SorelOxalis latifolia
- Love Plant, Purple ShamrockOxalis triangularis
- Biophytum candolleanum
- Biophytum nervifolium
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