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Oxalis eckloniana Presl. Bot. Bemerk. (1844) 20. (A group-species) Salter #88
Synonyms are given under the various Forms and varieties.
Stemless, more or less pilose.
Bulb: ovoid, acute at the apex, 1-2cm long, with rather light-brown tunics.
Leaves: few or many : petioles 1-3cm long, pilose : leaflets 3, sub-rotund, or in varieties oval, elliptical, obovate, oblong or linear- oblong, rarely cuneate-obcordate, emarginate, closely or in varieties distinctly ciliate, pilose on the mid-rib beneath, green, concolourous or in varieties often purple beneath.
Peduncles: 1-flowered, pilose, usually with 1-2 alternate bracts close to the calyx.
Sepals: lanceolate or linear-lanceolate, sometimes slightly attenuate, 5-9mm long, pilose.
Corolla: somewhat hypercrateriform, 1.5-3.5cm long, yellow, or in varieties rose-purple, violaceous, orange, salmon, or white with a subcylindrical yellow tube : laminae of the petals obliquely and broadly obovate, as long as or shorter than the narrow claw.
Filaments: the shorter 4-6mm, the longer 6-8.5mm long, glandular -pilose, acutely toothed near the base, the short and medium (like the styles) spreading on release from the corolla tube, the longest erect : anthers sagittate.
Ovary: pilose on the upper half, the chambers 2-5 ovuled : styles slender, pubescent below, glabrous or glandular above, the longest only erect : stigmas very small. Seeds without endosperm.
Form A: Typical.
Leaves: rather coarsely pilose : leaflets more or less rotund, 0.8-1.5cm long and broad, concolourous.
Bracts: 3-6mm long.
Corolla: up to 3.3cm long (? Sulphur) yellow.
Probably now extinct.
Form B:
O. salmonicolor Schltr.
Leaflets: rather broadly obovate or rarely cuneate-obovate, concolourous.
Bracts: minute or more often wanting.
Corolla: yellow or salmon-coloured.
(i) Leaflets obovate, more or less equal.
(ii) Leaflets cuneate-obovate, the medial longer than the lateral.
Form C:
More robust and more coarsely hirsute than the typical form.
Leaves: 7-12 : leaflets broadly cuneate-rotund, concolourous.
Bracts: up to 3mm long or wanting.
Sepals: 6-9mm long.
Corolla: 3-3.5cm long, rose.
Perhaps only a colour variant of the typical Form A.
Var. montigena (Schltr) R. Knuth.
O. purpurea Th. var. montigena R. Knuth.
Dwarf.
Leaflets: broadly obcordate, denticulate, ciliate.
Corolla: small, rose-purple or lilaceous, the tube yellow. The corolla tube is not reddish-purple as described in Pflrch-Ox.
Var. hopefieldiana R. Knuth
O. purpurea Th. var. hopefieldiana R. Knuth.
O. purpurea Th. var. aurantiaca Salter and Exell.
A rather small weak plant.
Bulbils: produced on underground stolons.
Corolla: orange or rose-purple.
Var. robusta Salter, var. nov.
More robust, rather coarsely hirsute. Rhizome longer. Leaflets larger, rotund or suborbicular, 1.1-2cm diameter, subcoriacious, dark green above, densely purple beneath.
Corolla: small, up to 2cm long, violacaceous, the tube shorter, narrowly funnel-shaped.
Sepals: 7-8mm long.
Var. sonderi Salter.
O. purpurea Th. (sensu Sond.).
O. approximata Sond.
O. bifolia E. & Z.
O. bolusii R. Knuth.
Leaves: 2 - many : leaflets subrotund, often broadly cuneate at the base, oval, ovate, elliptical, obovate, oblong-obovate, oblong or linear- oblong, closely or distinctly ciliate, 0.5-3cm long, often purple beneath.
Corolla: rose-purple, violaceous, white or rarely orange.
A polymorphous group of micro-varieties.
Flowers: usually May - June.
Form B:
Hairs hyaline-setose.
Leaflets: densely ciliate with short shining ascending setae, purple beneath.
Corolla: rose.
Possibly a distinct variety. The same remarkable ciliation is to be found on the leaflets of O. adenodes. Sond,
Form C:
Var. humilis (Th.) R. Knuth.
The specimen so labelled in Thunberg's herbarium is the same as var. Sonderi above. Thunberg's description of this species, however, applies without doubt to O. purpurea L (see Journ. of S.A Bot. V (1939) 50).
The problem of dividing up this prolific and polymorphous group of plants into definite taxonomic units appears at present to be insoluble, for except in a few cases, no really constant combinations of the variable characters can be found. The leaflets vary in thickness, ciliation and in shape from broadly rotund to linear-oblong, with almost every possible intermediate shape and although a few forms show a slight tendency to heterophylly, in the great majority of cases the shape of the leaflets in each colony of plants is fairly constant. Neither can the various colours of the corolla nor the relative length of the tube in proportion to the laminae of the petals in any way be correlated with the shape of the leaflets.
The var. Sonderi admittedly includes a large number of very variable plants.