Botanical Survey of India | Flora of India

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Herbs, annual or perennial, sometimes with rhizomes or bulbs. Leaves digitately or pinnately 3 - 4-foliolate; stipules when present adnate to base of petiole. Peduncles basal from bulbs or solitary and axillary. Inflorescence cymose or umbellate, 1 to many-flowered; bracteoles 2 to several, sometimes with apical calli; pedicels articulate at base and sometimes beneath calyx. Sepals shortly connate at base with or without apical calli. Petals coherent above claw, contorted, glabrous. Long filaments sometimes with a dorsal tooth each. Ovules 1 - 10 in 1 - 2 rows per locule; stigma cylindric, minutely bilobed to peltate, sometimes papillose. Capsules loculicidal by longitudinal slits; seeds 1 - 10 per locule.

Cosmopolitan, chiefly C. and S. America and S. Africa; ca 800 species, 10.in India.



KEY TO THE SPECIES


1a. Inflorescence 1-flowered 2
b. Inflorescence 2- or more flowered 4
2a. Plants not bulbous; petals white 3
b. Plants bulbous; petals red 10. Oxalis variabilis
3a. Stipules conspicuous, much broader than petiole; leatlets broadly obcordate, outlines rounded 1. Oxalis acetosella
b. Stipules narrow, slightly broader than petiole; leaflets distinctly triangular, outlines straight 7. Oxalis griffithii
4a. Plants acaulescent; leaves radical, arising from root stock 5
b. Plants caulescent; usually creeping, rarely erect 9
5a. Leaflets 3 6
b. Leaflets more than 3 8
6a. Leaflets cordate, bilobed with a wide sinus; petals yellow 2. Oxalis cernua
b. Leaflets broadly deltoid or obcordate; petals purple 7
7a. Stolons present; leaflets broadly deltoid, not punctate 5. Oxalis dehradunensis
b. Stolons absent; leaflets broadlyobcordate with a narrow sinus, minutely punctate 4. Oxalis corymbosa
8a. Leaflets 4 6. Oxalis deppei
b. Leaflets 7 - 9 8. Oxalis lasiandra
9a. Flowers in simple umbels; petals yellow 3. Oxalis corniculata
b. Flowers in broad umbelliform false racemes; petals Orange- yellow 9. Oxalis pubescens


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