{"id":1331,"date":"2012-04-19T17:52:00","date_gmt":"2012-04-19T21:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/?p=1331"},"modified":"2012-04-22T17:55:47","modified_gmt":"2012-04-22T21:55:47","slug":"its-all-there","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/2012\/04\/its-all-there\/","title":{"rendered":"It&#8217;s all there"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Ken Moore<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>Flora columnist<\/em><\/p>\n<p>With three parted leaves like the traditional shamrock, the wood-sorrels are calling out to us these days from sunny and shady locations.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_25210\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/?attachment_id=25210\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-25210\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-25210\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Oxalis-rubra_web.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"Oxalis-rubra_web\" width=\"300\" height=\"400\" class=\"size-full wp-image-25210\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-25210\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bright pink Oxalis rubra from Brazil naturalizes in lawns. Photo by Ken Moore<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The most noticeable of the <em>Oxalis<\/em> species is <em>O. rubra<\/em>, which right now is making appearances in lawns about town. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a bright-pink flowered <em>oxalis<\/em> from Brazil that has naturalized in neighborhood yards.<\/p>\n<p>We have a beautiful, shy native pink wood-sorrel, <em>Oxalis violaceae<\/em>, which you will occasionally discover while walking in local forests. Only a few flowers can be seen here and there, the real charm of this plant being the engaging clover-like leaf, which is tinged with a pale-purple coloring. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d never seen it in the open until last week while walking the N.C. Botanical Garden\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Mason Farm Biological Reserve. There was quite a stand of it flowering profusely out in one of the recently burned fields. I could not help but think that like young children, those violet wood-sorrels had seized an opportunity to escape the nearby woodlands and frolic about in the sunny field.<\/p>\n<p>Much more commonly observed about town is the small yellow-flowered <em>Oxalis dillenii<\/em>, southern yellow wood-sorrel. This is the one I remember from my childhood. I am delighted to discover it is the first plant described in the introduction of Doug Elliott\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s <em>Wildwoods Wisdom<\/em>. Most likely out of print, Doug Elliott\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s descriptions of nature\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s creatures, including humans, are well worth finding a copy, whether from a library or purchased online as a used copy.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_25209\" style=\"width: 198px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/?attachment_id=25209\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-25209\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-25209\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Oxalis-florida_web.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"Oxalis-florida_web\" width=\"188\" height=\"250\" class=\"size-full wp-image-25209\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-25209\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Large flowered yellow wood-sorrels are occasionally encountered in local forests. Photo by Ken Moore<\/p><\/div>\n<p>This yellow wood-sorrel was the first wild plant Doug put in his mouth. His dad called it sour grass, and Doug frequently visited the little patch in his yard to sample those tart little green seedpods he called \u00e2\u20ac\u0153pickles.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s exactly how I remember them as a youngster \u00e2\u20ac\u201c sneaking around beneath the shrubbery tasting those tart little \u00e2\u20ac\u0153pickles,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and my mom searching for me to warn me about eating plants in the yard. You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll see this small upright yellow wood-sorrel everywhere \u00e2\u20ac\u201c in lawns, along sidewalks and sunny woodland borders and even at entrances to coffee shops.<\/p>\n<p>Sometimes you may spot a variety of yellow wood-sorrel with larger yellow flowers. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen a few of them recently, brightening shaded forest floors.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_25212\" style=\"width: 184px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/?attachment_id=25212\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-25212\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-25212\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Oxalis-with-pickles_web.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"Oxalis-with-pickles_web\" width=\"174\" height=\"250\" class=\"size-full wp-image-25212\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-25212\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Fruit, &quot;pickles&quot; of southern yellow wood-sorrel are a spicy treat. Photo by Ken Moore<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Doug shares a wonderful story about seeing wood-sorrel while walking with his Canadian friend some years ago. His friend described gathering it by the basketful as a kid for his family to mix in with other salad greens. The flavor of those \u00e2\u20ac\u0153sour pickles\u00e2\u20ac\u009d served as a dressing. The traditional name for it in the north country is \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all there,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d because the top of each of the three leaflets has two lobes for a total count of six, representing the six directions of north, south, east, west, sky and earth. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all there,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s nice to feel the completeness of being one with nature when encountering any of the wood-sorrels.<\/p>\n<p><em>Email Ken Moore at flora@carrborocitizen.com. Find previous Ken Moore Citizen columns at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/\">The Annotated Flora<\/a> (carrborocitizen.com\/flora).<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Ken Moore Flora columnist With three parted leaves like the traditional shamrock, the wood-sorrels are calling out to us these days from sunny and shady locations. The most noticeable of the Oxalis species is O. rubra, which right now is making appearances in lawns about town. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a bright-pink flowered oxalis from Brazil that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,19],"tags":[49,939,937,938,936,940],"class_list":["post-1331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ken-moores-flora","category-spring","tag-mason-farm-biological-reserve","tag-oxalis","tag-oxalis-dillenii","tag-oxalis-violaceae","tag-wildwoods-wisdom","tag-wood-sorrel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1331"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1331\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1333,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1331\/revisions\/1333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}