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Oxalis bowiei Lindl. Bot. Reg. XIX (1833) t. 1585 (Salter #14)
O. bowieana Lodd.
O. purpurata Jacq. Var. bowiei (Lindl.) Sond.
O. vigilans L. Bolus
Stemless. Plant more or less pubescent or villose, sometimes with short capitate hairs admixed.
Bulb: ovoid, attentuate, or lanceolate in outline, up to 4.5cm long, producing a contractile root : tunics smooth, brown.
Leaves: basal, petiolate : leaflets suborbicular or very broadly obcordate, tapering cuneately to the base, lightly incised or sometimes almost entire, 1-5cm long, 1.2-5cm broad rather leathery, glabrous or sparsely pilose above, more densely so and sometimes purple below, ciliate.
Peduncle: 3-12-flowered, 10-25cm long, usually at least twice as long as the leaves : bracts linear, 7-10mm long, ecallose : pedicels usually 1-3cm long.
Sepals: lanceolate or linear-lanceolate, 0.6-1.1cm long, ecallose.
Corolla: pink, up to 2.5cm long, with a short widely funnel- shaped greenish-yellow tube : petals obliquely cuneate, attenuate at the base, rounded at the apex, up to 1.2cm broad.
Filaments: the longest 8-9mm long, pubescent, sometimes with glandular hairs on the upper part, edentate.
Ovary: more or less pubescent on the upper part, the chambers 5-ovuled : styles pubescent below, glandular-pilose above. Seeds with thin endosperm, the embryo green.
Flowers: Mar-May.
This species has been cultivated as a border flower in England. It is quite distinct from O. purpurata Jacq, which has an entirely different root-system. See Journ. of S.A. Bot. VI (1940) 15.