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Oxalis fabaefolia Jacq. Oxal. (1794) 41, t 27. Salter #111
O. crispa Jacq.
O. fabaefolia Jacq. var. crispa (Jacq.) Sond.
Further synonymy given under Form B.
Stemless, rather succulent, entirely glabrous.
Bulb: ovoid or ovoid-conical, acute or rostrate at the apex, up to about 4cm long sometimes even larger : outer tunics brown, splitting, forming in old bulbs a somewhat matted fibrous coating.
Rhizome: long, enclosed in a brown tunicaceous coretex, with broad membranous scales, the upper large, brown and prominent.
Leaves: often 5 - 10 : petioles 1.5 - 2.5cm long, dilated below the basal articulation, with foliaceous wings, the pair suborbicular, elliptical, obovate or ligulate in outline, usually somewhat attenuate towards the base, the medial petiole prominent : leaflets 2-5, suborbicular, elliptic, obovate or oblanceolate, usually 1.5 - 4cm long, rather thick, sometimes undulate along the narrowly cartilaginous margin, the earliest juvenile leaves simple.
Peduncles: 1-flowered, 1-7cm long, with 2 linear callus-tipped bracts near the calyx.
Sepals: oblong or elliptic-oblong, obtuse, 5-10mm long, unequal in width, rarely 1-2 larger, subspathulate, usually with 2 or more brown apical calli.
Corolla: 2-3cm long, yellow, pale mauve or white, with a widish funnel-shaped yellow tube, rarely with a purple eye at the throat : laminae of the petals obovate, 0.8-1.5cm broad, a little longer than the claw.
Filaments: the shorter 3.5-5mm, the longer 4.5-7.5mm long, very minutely gladular-pilose, with short broad obtuse teeth.
Ovary: glabrous, ecallose, the chambers 2-3 ovuled : styles glandular-pilose on the upper half. Seeds without endosperm.
Form A. Typical.
Pair of petiole-wings suborbicular, elliptical or obovate in outline. Leaflets 1-3.
Colonies occur with flowers of different colours growing in association. The leaves vary a great deal in size under the influence of climactic conditions. The undulations at the margin of the leaflets in O. crispa Jacq. is not even of varietal value, similar undulation being found in varying degrees in several species, particularly in arid situations. One specimen has one of the sepals much larger that the rest and broadly spathulate in shape, exactly as in the species O. flabellifolia Jacq. A similar abnormality has been observed in some colonies of O. purpurea L.
Form B.
Wings on the petiole narrow. Leaflets oblanceolate of cuneate-obcordate.
(i) Corolla yellow. Leaflets 1-3 O. asinia Jacq. O. lanceaefolia Jacq.
(ii) Corolla pale mauve or white. Leaflets 1-5 O. leporina Jacq.
The petiole-wings in all the above specimens are narrower than those illustrated by Jacq.
The so-called varieties consolii Tod., majoranae Tod. and coppelerii Tod., all cultivated, are not worthy of distinction.