Creeping Woodsorrel

Description:

Also know as Taingan-daga in it's native land the Philippines, Amlika in Sanskrit and Indian Zorale in English. Yellow Oxalis is a small variable, prostrate, creeping herb, somewhat pubescent with long, scattered hair, the stems creeping, up to 50 centimeters in length, usually rooting at the nodes. Often it is mistaken for yellow clover however the oxolis blooms a few weeks earlier. Leaves are trifoliate, with three small heart-shaped leaflets, their petioles 5 centimeters long or less, sessile. Leaflets are obcordate, 0.5 to 1.5 centimeters long and stalkless. At noontime, the leaflets droop like folded umbrellas. At night, the leaflets close and fold together. Flowers are yellow, one to several on each peduncle, subumbellately disposed, nearly 1 centimeters long. Petals are obcordate. Fruits are capsules, hairy, tomentose, subcylindric, 1 to 1.8 centimeters long, divided into minute segments with numerous black seeds the size of sand grains.

Habitat:

Lives in waste places, open grasslands, etc., from sea level to an altitude of 2,200 meters throughout the Philippines. Also occurs in the warmer parts of the Old World.

Notes:

Edible – Leaves used as salad ingredient with our daily diet can purify the bowels of such toxins as pesticides which is found in almost all grocery store produce. Herbal Medicine – Oxalis corniculata or Indian sorrel – Natural cure for Bloody Diarrhea. Ground to a paste and added with milk becomes an effective medicine to diarrhea in children.