''Oxalis montana'' is a species of flowering plant in the family

Oxalidaceae The Oxalidaceae, or wood sorrel family, are a small family of five genera of herbaceous plants, shrubs and small trees, with the great majority of the 570 species in the genus ''Oxalis'' (wood sorrels). Members of this family typically have divid ...

known by the

common name In biology, a common name of a taxon or organism (also known as a vernacular name, English name, colloquial name, country name, popular name, or farmer's name) is a name that is based on the normal language of everyday life; and is often contrast ...

s mountain woodsorrel, wood shamrock, sours and white woodsorrel. It may also be called common woodsorrel, though this name also applies to its close relative, ''

Oxalis acetosella ''Oxalis acetosella'', the wood sorrel or common wood sorrel, is a rhizomatous flowering plant in the family ''Oxalidaceae'', common in most of Europe and parts of Asia. The specific epithet ''acetosella'' refers to its sour taste. The common na ...

''. This species is a perennial herb native to eastern North America, including eastern Canada and the north-central and eastern United States, and

Appalachian Mountains The Appalachian Mountains, often called the Appalachians, (french: Appalaches), are a system of mountains in eastern to northeastern North America. The Appalachians first formed roughly 480 million years ago during the Ordovician Period. They ...

.Pavek, Diane S. (1992
''Oxalis montana''.
In: Fire Effects Information System, nline U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory. Retrieved 12-04-2011. The Latin

specific epithet In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

''montana'' refers to mountains or coming from mountains.Archibald William Smith

Description

''Oxalis montana'' is a perennial herb which grows in patches connected by subterranean

rhizome In botany and dendrology, a rhizome (; , ) is a modified subterranean plant stem that sends out roots and shoots from its nodes. Rhizomes are also called creeping rootstalks or just rootstalks. Rhizomes develop from axillary buds and grow hori ...

s. There are no stems, just clumps of leaves growing to about in maximum height. Oxalis montana in Fundy National Park

The leaves are each made up of three heart-shaped leaflets. The leaflets move, folding and unfolding, in response to sunlight.Comerro, H. K. and G. Briggs. (2000)
Effects of leaflet orientation on transpiration rates and water potentials of ''Oxalis montana''.
''SUNY Geneseo Journal of Science and Mathematics''. 1(1) 7-10. Retrieved 12-04-2011. There are two types of flowers, blooms that open and

cleistogamous Cleistogamy is a type of automatic self-pollination of certain plants that can propagate by using non-opening, self-pollinating flowers. Especially well known in peanuts, peas, and pansies, this behavior is most widespread in the grass family. How ...

flowers that remain closed and self-pollinate.Jasienuik, M. and M. J. Lechowicz. (1987)
Spatial and temporal variation in chasmogamy and cleistogamy in ''Oxalis montana'' (Oxalidaceae).
''American Journal of Botany'' 74(11) 1672-80. Retrieved 12-04-2011. The flower color is variable. Environmental factors may cause variation; flowers growing at higher

elevation The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § Vert ...

s have less color in the veins on the

petal Petals are modified Leaf, leaves that surround the reproductive parts of flowers. They are often advertising coloration, brightly colored or unusually shaped to attract pollinators. All of the petals of a flower are collectively known as the ''c ...

s, while the veins of those at lower elevations have a deeper pink-purple coloration.Gates, S. C. and H. W. Vogelmann. (1969)
Variations in populations of ''Oxalis montana'' Raf.
''Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club'' 96(6) 714-19. Retrieved 12-04-2011. The fruit is a capsule. The plant reproduces sexually by seed and asexually by sprouting large colonies from the rhizome. Some populations produce no flowers in a given season and reproduce only vegetatively.

Ecology

This plant is a

climax species Climax species, also called late seral, late-successional, K-selected or equilibrium species, are plant species that can germinate and grow with limited resources; e.g., they need heat exposure or low water availability. They are the species wit ...

, occurring in mature forests and tolerant of shade. It is a dominant herb in a number of

ecosystem An ecosystem (or ecological system) consists of all the organisms and the physical environment with which they interact. These biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows. Energy enters the syste ...

s, such as the forests of the

. It occurs there in the

understory In forestry and ecology, understory (American English), or understorey (Commonwealth English), also known as underbrush or undergrowth, includes plant life growing beneath the forest canopy without penetrating it to any great extent, but abov ...

red spruce ''Picea rubens'', commonly known as red spruce, is a species of spruce native to eastern North America, ranging from eastern Quebec and Nova Scotia, west to the Adirondack Mountains and south through New England along the Appalachians to western ...

(''Picea rubens'') and

balsam Balsam is the resinous exudate (or sap) which forms on certain kinds of trees and shrubs. Balsam (from Latin balsamum "gum of the balsam tree", ultimately from Semitic, Aramaic ''busma'', Arabic ''balsam'' and Hebrew ''basam'', "spice", "perfume ...

Fraser fir The Fraser fir (''Abies fraseri'') is a species of fir native to the Appalachian Mountains of the Southeastern United States. ''Abies fraseri'' is closely related to ''Abies balsamea'' (balsam fir), of which it has occasionally been treated a ...

(''Abies balsamea'' or ''A. fraseri''). It is also dominant in

northern hardwood forest The northern hardwood forest is a general type of North American forest ecosystem found over much of southeastern and south-central Canada, Ontario, and Quebec, extending south into the United States in northern New England, New York, and Pennsyl ...

habitat and its

ecotone An ecotone is a transition area between two biological communities, where two communities meet and integrate. It may be narrow or wide, and it may be local (the zone between a field and forest) or regional (the transition between forest and gras ...

s, in the understory of

red Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–740 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a secondar ...

sugar maple ''Acer saccharum'', the sugar maple, is a species of flowering plant in the soapberry and lychee family Sapindaceae. It is native to the hardwood forests of eastern Canada and eastern United States. Sugar maple is best known for being the prima ...

(''Acer rubrum'' or ''A. saccharum''),

yellow birch ''Betula alleghaniensis'', the yellow birch, golden birch, or swamp birch, is a large tree and an important lumber species of birch native to northeastern North America. Its vernacular names refer to the golden color of the tree's bark. In the pa ...

(''Betula lutea''), and

American beech ''Fagus grandifolia'', the American beech or North American beech, is a species of beech tree native to the eastern United States and extreme southeast of Canada. Description ''Fagus grandifolia'' is a large deciduous tree growing to tall, w ...

(''Fagus grandifolia''). Other dominant understory species growing with it include false lily-of-the-valley (''Maianthemum canadense''), goldthread (''Coptis groenlandica''), starflower (''Trientalis borealis''), and woodferns (''Dryopteris'' spp.). This plant's extensive root network helps it stabilize the soil. It can grow on flat ground or steep slopes. The climate is often cool and moist, with high humidity and precipitation, including

fog drip Fog is a visible aerosol consisting of tiny water droplets or ice crystals suspended in the air at or near the Earth's surface. Reprint from Fog can be considered a type of low-lying cloud usually resembling stratus, and is heavily influe ...

, and areas of long-lasting

snowpack Snowpack forms from layers of snow that accumulate in geographic regions and high elevations where the climate includes cold weather for extended periods during the year. Snowpacks are an important water resource that feed streams and rivers as th ...

Wildfire A wildfire, forest fire, bushfire, wildland fire or rural fire is an unplanned, uncontrolled and unpredictable fire in an area of Combustibility and flammability, combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire ...

is uncommon.

Uses

The species is sour in flavor, and can be added to soup or salad. It contains

oxalic acid Oxalic acid is an organic acid with the systematic name ethanedioic acid and formula . It is the simplest dicarboxylic acid. It is a white crystalline solid that forms a colorless solution in water. Its name comes from the fact that early inve ...

, which can be poisonous in high quantities.

References

External links

The Nature Conservancy''Oxalis montana'' — U.C. Photo Gallery
{{Taxonbar, from=Q3084730

montana Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbi ...

Edible plants Flora of the Eastern United States Flora of Eastern Canada Flora of the Northeastern United States Flora of the Great Lakes region (North America) Flora of the Southeastern United States Flora of the Appalachian Mountains Flora of the North-Central United States Plants described in 1818 Sour foods Taxa named by Constantine Samuel Rafinesque