#sourgrass

[branchflowerphoto]

honey bee in the wood sorrel

[whats-in-a-sentence]

The name oxalic acid is derived from one of its sources in the biological world, namely, plants of the genus Oxalis, one of which is the soursob (sourgrass) plant, O. pes-caprae (figure 23.2).

"Chemistry" 2e - Blackman, A., Bottle, S., Schmid, S., Mocerino, M., Wille, U.

[vandaliatraveler]

Mountain laurel (Kalmia latifolia) ruled on the expansive plains of Dolly Sods today. It’s impossible for me to describe how intensely beautiful this display is in mid-June. In places, undulating waves of pink and white flowers extended to the visible horizon. On top of the mountain laurel, it was a gorgeous day for a long hike in the wilderness, with the cool-crispness of an early spring or late fall day and wispy clouds vaulting overhead in a brisk, buffeting wind. In the deep, rich woods off Red Creek Canyon, exquisite mountain wood sorrel (Oxalis montana) was in bloom, and the summer boletes were already out of the ground.

[puresephone]

excerpt from my poetry. january 2022.

[harold-smith-in-training]

Introducing: Oxalis

A friend I was helping move offloaded some terra cotta pots on me (I complained in person as well as on this blog about how it was impossible to find any all summer), and one contained a dead plant. The shriveled leaf looked like oxalis to me, and upon further inspection the rhizome appeared to not be completely dead. I plunked it in water to see it I could revive it and...

10/11/2020:

Success! Oxalis can be kept dormant as a perennial. My mom grows lots of oxalis inside and outside so I consulted her a bit on this one. I remember her large purple oxalis plant growing on the counter. This cultivar has plan green leaves with red on the abaxial side and white flowers.

I rooted it out in water for a few weeks and then potted it up when I finally got a free growpot.

11/06/2020:

It’s been growing strong on the west windowsill. I rotate it every week or so. I imagine the leaves pressed up against the window glass will get damaged once the weather drops for longer, but so far it’s been doing okay.

11/21/2020:

In researching the plant I discovered it was edible. Thinking I had a fun tidbit to share, I told my mom who was unimpressed because as she told me, “you’ve been eating oxalis all your life!” I didn’t know that “sourgrass,” a staple of the Santa Cruz landscape, was the same plant.

"Sourgrass” is such a staple of my life that it was the name of a folk band I played with in Santa Cruz. Here’s more sourgrass I found on my r&d vacation in January 2020:

And here’s the main character from my new comic Limiter, chewing on some in the Santa Cruz redwoods:

[localgardenfae]

Sweet bees , sour grass

[mike13mt]

Foraging Sweat Bee II by dalantech

[thedirtmag]

Before and after. My next door neighbor's yard. I prefer the before. #oxalisinvasion #sourgrass #mowdelawn #oxalis (at Pasadena, California)