PLANTAE / PHANEROGAMAE / ANTHOPHYTA / OXALIDALES / OXALIDACEAE / OXALIS / VERSICOLOR / VERSICOLOR

Oxalis versicolor L. var. versicolor
LC Indigenous Endemic
Morphological description

Caulescent, usually 8-20 cm high or taller in shade, almost glabrous or somewhat sparsely pubescent, often with a few gland-tipped hairs. Bulbs ovoid, acute or attenuate at the apex, 1-5-2-5 cm long, often massed together: tunics hard, black, smooth, often slightly gummy. Rhizome usually 8-12 cm long. Stem simple, erect, bearing a few scales and often several subsessile leaves or fascicles of leaves, sometimes branching late in the season. Leaves usually 8-20, mostly apically congested: petioles slender, 0.5-2 cm long, rarely longer: leaflets 3, sessile, linear or linear-cuneate, always broadest at the apex, emarginate, usually con-duplicate, sometimes slightly falcate, up to 1.8 cm long, glabrous above, bicallose at the apex, often with a row of calli near the margins. Peduncles 1-fld., terminal, usually about twice as long as the leaves, often with short gland-tipped hairs towards the apex: bracts small, callose, alternate, near the calyx. Sepals lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, glandular-pilose, with 2 or sometimes more conspicuous converging apical calli. Corolla 1.3-2.5 cm long, white, with a fairly widely funnel-shaped yellow tube: petals broadly cuneate, rounded at the apex, tapering attenuately to a short claw, with a conspicuous reddish-purple margin beneath or very rarely concolorous. Filaments, the shorter 2.5-5 mm, the longer 3.5-7 mm long, glandular-pilose, with long acute teeth. Ovary pubescent towards the apex, the chambers 2-3-ovuled: styles pubescent below, glandular-pilose above. Seeds without endosperm. From: Salter, TM. 1944. The genus Oxalis in South Africa: A taxonomic revision. J. S. African Bot. 1: 1-355. [CC BY]

Altitude

50 to 250 m

Occurrence records map

This map contains point-based occurrences at different locations

iNaturalist: BODATSA: Data partners records:

Residence status

Occurrence in the Flora of Southern Africa (FSA) countries and South African provinces. Residence status indicates if a taxon is indigenous, endemic, naturalised or invasive in a specific region. This data is based on specimen records and literature

FSA

SA

BOT

NAM

ESW

LES

WC

EC

NC

FS

GA

KZN

LP

MP

NW

Absent

Indigenous

Endemic

Naturalised

Invasive

Names and Sources

Accepted name
Oxalis versicolor L. var. versicolor
Synonym(s)

Classification

KINGDOM Plantae

SUBKINGDOM Phanerogamae

PHYLUM Anthophyta

ORDER Oxalidales

FAMILY Oxalidaceae

GENUS Oxalis

SPECIES versicolor

VARIETY versicolor

18 results for Oxalis versicolor L. var. versicolor

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Specimen records

Barcode: PRE0456022-0 Collector(s) & number: Van der Merwe, P, 788 | 1961-6-6

South Africa, Western Cape, SWARTBOSKLOOF

Data Resource: BODATSA View record

Barcode: PRE0673076-0 Collector(s) & number: Hugo, L, 2617 | 1981-6-17

South Africa, Western Cape, PAARDEBERG.; MODDERKLOOF FARM.; ROAD GOING UP PAARDEBERG ON FARM MODDER- KLOOF.

Data Resource: BODATSA View record

Barcode: NBG0172589-0 Collector(s) & number: Thompson, MF, 3823 | 1978-6-15

South Africa, Western Cape, Cape Town. Botlery Mountain. Welgelegen farm. Altitude ca.1200 ft.

Data Resource: BODATSA View record

Barcode: PRE0456019-0 Collector(s) & number: Phillips, PRE 56463 | 1912-6-

South Africa, Western Cape, CAPE TOWN; ORANJEZICHT

Data Resource: BODATSA View record

Barcode: PRE0456007-0 Collector(s) & number: Bolus, H, PRE 56515 | 1899-9-

South Africa, Western Cape, KENILWORTH

Data Resource: BODATSA View record

Barcode: PRE0456010-0 Collector(s) & number: MacOwan, P, 203 | 1885-9-

South Africa, Western Cape, CAPE TOWN; CAPE FLATS; WYNBERG

Data Resource: BODATSA View record

Barcode: PRE0456009-0 Collector(s) & number: Salter, TM, 3303 | 1933-5-22

South Africa, Western Cape, CAPE FLATS; RAAPENBURG

Data Resource: BODATSA View record

Barcode: GHPG$0004452-0 Collector(s) & number: Joubert, CE, 1249 | 2013-8-20

South Africa, Western Cape, Ponds on the road to Rooisand Parking area.

Data Resource: BODATSA View record

Barcode: PRE0460126-0 Collector(s) & number: Grant, A, 2208 | 1926-7-2

South Africa, Western Cape, CAPE TOWN; KIRSTENBOSCH NAT. BO

Data Resource: BODATSA View record

Barcode: PRE0456005-0 Collector(s) & number: Rogers, FA, 11244 | 1912-8-

South Africa, Western Cape, SIMONSTOWN; REDHILL

Data Resource: BODATSA View record

Barcode: PRE0456023-0 Collector(s) & number: Humbert, J-H, 9434 | 1933-7-31

South Africa, Western Cape, CAPE TOWN

Data Resource: BODATSA View record

Barcode: PRE0549133-0 Collector(s) & number: Matthews, GC, 114 | 1978-7-4

South Africa, Western Cape, STELLENBOSCH DIST; DEVON VALLEY; PROTEA HEIGHTS CUT FL. FARM

Data Resource: BODATSA View record

Barcode: PRE0456024-0 Collector(s) & number: Acocks, JPH, 761 | 1938-9-15

South Africa, Western Cape, CAPE PENINSULA; REDHILL

Data Resource: BODATSA View record

Barcode: PRE0456011-0 Collector(s) & number: Salter, TM, 1800 | 1931-11-10

South Africa, Western Cape, CAPE PENINSULA; W. OF KLASSJAGERSBERG

Data Resource: BODATSA View record

Barcode: PRE0456016-0 Collector(s) & number: Bolus, H, 12636 | 1905-9-

South Africa, Western Cape, DARLING

Data Resource: BODATSA View record

Barcode: PRE0499342-0 Collector(s) & number: Goldblatt, P, 3570 | 1976-7-14

South Africa, Cape Province, DARLING DIST.; MAMRE ROAD STA; 2 KM. E. OF MAMRE RD. STA.

Data Resource: BODATSA View record

Barcode: PRE0456008-0 Collector(s) & number: Schlechter, FRR, 984 | 1892-6-5

South Africa, Western Cape, CONSTANTIABERG

Data Resource: BODATSA View record

Barcode: NBG0268054-0 Collector(s) & number: Koopman, R, CR15132 | 2011-6-16

South Africa, Western Cape, Malmesbury. Riverlands Nature Reserve, in wetland about 1 km N of south boundary along railway. 33°29'40.6"S 18°34'38.3"E.

General notes: Plain, no slope. Sand clay. Flowers present.

Data Resource: BODATSA View record

Plant occurence records per dataset

Plant occurence records per year

Occurrence records map

This map contains point-based occurrences at different locations

iNaturalist: BODATSA: Data partners records:

1959

PERIODICAL/JOURNAL

Oxalis versicolor Linn. var. versicolor Salter, TM; Page, MM

Flowering Plants of South Africa 33: , t.1298B

1944

PERIODICAL/JOURNAL

The genus Oxalis in South Africa: A taxonomic revision Salter, TM

Journal of South African Botany 1: 1-355

No results found for Oxalis versicolor L. var. versicolor

Status

Global

Status and criteria

LC

Assessment date

2014-01-20

Assessor(s)

Plantae Coordinator

Distribution

Range

This species is endemic to South Africa. It is found in the Western Cape Province, from Groot Winterhoek Wilderness Area (near Porterville) in the north, southeastwards along the southern Cape mountains to Hawequas Forest and Limietberg Mountains (near Worcester), and then westwards through Paarl and Stellenbosch to the coastal plain and slopes of the Langeberg mountains in the Riversdale district, then northeastwards along the coastal plain and slopes of the Outeniqua, Kouga and Baviaanskloof mountain ranges from the vicinity of George to Humansdorp (Eastern Cape). In the southern parts of the Western Cape it appears to be confined to higher-altitude, montane fynbos habitats. Does not cross the Cape Flats, where the Cape Golden Mole (<em>Chrysochloris asiatica</em>) is common, but coexists with <em>C. asiatica</em> in Stellenbosch and Paarl (Bronner 2013).

Habitat and ecology

Major system

Terrestrial

Major habitats

Sandy soils and soft loams in Mountain Fynbos, Grassy Fynbos and Renosterveld of South West Cape. Also in Afromontane forest and southern African moist savanna along the southern Cape coast. Coexists with <em>Chrysochloris asiatica </em>in Stellenbosch, but favours richer and wetter soils (Broom 1907). Exists in broad sympatry with <em>Chlorotalpa duthieae</em> along the southern Cape coast, but trapping data suggest they select different micro habitats, <em>A. corriae</em> preferring forest fringes and associated fynbos, and <em>C. duthieae</em> preferring deeper forest. Thrives in gardens, cultivated lands, golf courses and livestock paddocks. Present also in exotic plantations, but apparently at lower densities (Bronner 2013).

Threats

Widespread habitat alteration, degradation and loss has occurred historically throughout the range of this species, as a result of agriculture, forestry and urbanization, but it appears to adapt well to transformed habitats providing that the intensity of disturbance is not too severe. Current threats are habitat alteration, degradation and loss in preferred habitat areas along the southeastern coast of Western Cape owing to tourism developments and increasingly intensive agricultural practices, and climate change, which could lead to a decline in suitable habitat at some locations, and the fragmentation of some subpopulations. More localized threats include: poisoning and persecution by gardeners, greenkeepers, nurserymen and specialized (small-scale) agricultural concerns; and predation by domestic dogs and cats.

Population

Population trend

Common throughout its range, but restricted to friable soils supporting a dense invertebrate fauna; less common in rocky mountainous habitats, where it’s occurrence is seemingly restricted to patches of friable soils.

Bibliography

ELECTRONIC SOURCE
IUCN 2018. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2018-1

JOURNAL ARTICLE
Dirsh, V.M. 1965. Revision of the family Pneumoridae (Orthoptera: Acridoidea). Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) Entomology. 15:325-396

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