Tenleaf Woodsorrel - Oxalis decaphylla
Railroad Canyon, Black Range, July 23, 2017
On August 12, 2016, we were hiking along a ridge south of Iron Creek Campground in the Black Range when we came upon a group of Oxalis decaphylla, Tenleaf Woodsorrel. It definitely breaks the mold of “three-leaf clover” foliage which I associate with the genus. In the United States, it has a very limited range (New Mexico and Arizona.
Scientific synonyms for this species include Acetosella decaphylla (Karl Eduard Kuntze - 1891), Oxalis jaliscana (see specimen below), Oxalis grayi (Rose), and Ionoxalis decaphylla (Joseph Nelson Rose - 1906). Other common English names for this species include Ten-leaved Pink-Sorrel and Gray’s Woodsorrel. Its current description was made by Karl Sigismund Knuth in 1822.