Botanical Family · Oxalidales

Oxalidaceae

Wood sorrel family

10 speciesOrder Oxalidales8+ well-known plants

Plants with trifoliate leaves that fold at night (nyctinasty). Sour taste from oxalic acid. Includes wood sorrel and carambola (star fruit).

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Representative OXALIDACEAE specimen
Representative specimen · Oxalidaceae
Key pattern

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.

Identify the species

Which Oxalidaceae species is this?

Answer what you can see and narrow it down to a single Oxalidaceae species.

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Leaf TypeIs the leaf a single blade, or divided into leaflets?
Pinnately compound
Pinnately compound (leaflets in rows along a stalk)
Trifoliate
Trifoliate (three leaflets)

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

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