Species
+

Oxalis corniculata L.

'ihi, Clover Sorrel, Creeping Lady's Sorrel, Creeping Sorrel

Climate known 72 photographs Bulb, tuber or caudex
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Oxalis corniculata, the creeping woodsorrel, procumbent yellow sorrel or sleeping beauty, is a somewhat delicate-appearing, low-growing herbaceous plant in the family Oxalidaceae.

Text from Wikipedia, “Oxalis corniculata”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Oxalis

Oxalis is a large genus of flowering plants in the wood-sorrel family, Oxalidaceae, comprising over 550 species. The genus occurs throughout most of the world, except for the polar areas; species diversity is particularly rich in tropical Brazil, Mexico, and South Africa.

Text from Wikipedia, “Oxalis”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Oxalidaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
China South-Central, Hainan, China North-Central +15
Wild records
232 in range· 21 open

At a glance

Warmest month
30°C
Jul, mean day; nights 25 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
2045mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jun 336 mm (CHELSA)
Light
21–36DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a bulb, tuber or caudex by the genus Oxalis, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a summer growing season, May to September in the northern hemisphere (May to September at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 2045 mm a year, wettest June at 336 mm, driest December at 35 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 21 to 36 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 8.7 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Acetosella corniculata (L.) Kuntze; Acetosella corniculata var. subglabra Kuntze; Acetosella corniculata var. villosa (M.Bieb.) Kuntze; Acetosella herpestica (Schltdl.) Kuntze; Acetosella simulans (Baker) Kuntze and 45 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a bulb, tuber or caudex by the genus Oxalis, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table holds no figure for this group, which spans too much for one minimum; the cold floor is the habitat's alone, and no prose comes from the table.

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, May to September in the northern hemisphere (May to September at the habitat, northern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (1496 mm of 2045 mm) falls in May to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 27.1 °C against a yearly mean of 22.8 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to March.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 2045 mm a year, wettest June at 336 mm, driest December at 35 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

2045 mm a year at the habitat, 1496 mm of it May to September. Wettest month June at 336 mm, driest December at 35 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1068 mm to 3575 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 21 to 36 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 21 to 36 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 15, the highest 90th-percentile month 44).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 8.7 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 8.7 °C, the absolute minimum 3.9 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 34.2 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 12.5 °C in January (across the envelope cells 5.2 °C to 16.1 °C), warmest day 29.9 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 8.7 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 61 to 66% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 18 °C in Jan to 30 °C in Jul; mean night from 13 °C in Jan to 25 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 2045 mm of rain a year, most in Jun. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 175 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 3.9 °C and the 99th-percentile day 34.2 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°20°30°40°34.2° 99th-percentile day (undated)3.9° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500600mm rainDLI 21–36RH 61–66 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 175 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C18 / 14–2619 / 15–2922 / 18–3325 / 21–3627 / 24–3729 / 26–3330 / 27–3230 / 27–3228 / 25–3026 / 22–3023 / 19–2820 / 15–26
Night °C13 / 5–1614 / 7–1716 / 9–2020 / 13–2322 / 17–2624 / 19–2625 / 21–2725 / 21–2624 / 19–2521 / 15–2318 / 11–2014 / 7–17
Rain mm40 / 8–16477 / 10–233102 / 15–208155 / 20–221260 / 30–334336 / 136–455291 / 175–490325 / 189–521284 / 147–52391 / 36–40149 / 17–29635 / 6–186
DLI22 / 15–3022 / 17–3627 / 22–4131 / 27–4432 / 30–4433 / 29–3536 / 27–3933 / 26–3630 / 27–3228 / 23–3224 / 17–3021 / 15–28
RH %62 / 54–6663 / 51–6664 / 47–6865 / 46–6865 / 51–6965 / 59–6965 / 63–6966 / 64–7065 / 62–6963 / 57–6762 / 54–6661 / 53–65

Each figure is the median across the 175 grid cells holding the 225 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1298:6029 (25.075, 121.475). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 3.9 °C, 1st-percentile night 8.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 34.2 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 175 distinct grid cells holding the 225 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1298:6029 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 25.00_121.250, lapse-corrected -224 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 5 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeChina South-Central, Hainan, China North-Central, China Southeast, Japan, Korea, Nansei-shoto, Taiwan, Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, India, Nepal, Pakistan, West Himalaya, Myanmar, Vietnam, Philippines· introduced: Finland, Great Britain, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, Baleares, Corse, France, Portugal, Sardegna, Spain, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Kriti, Romania, Sicilia, Turkey-in-Europe, Yugoslavia, Baltic States, Krym, South European Russia, Ukraine, Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, Azores, Canary Is., Cape Verde, Madeira, Selvagens, Benin, Burkina, Ghana, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Togo, Burundi, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Congo, Gabon, Gulf of Guinea Is., Rwanda, Zaïre, Chad, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Socotra, Somalia, Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Cape Provinces, Lesotho, KwaZulu-Natal, Free State, Swaziland, Northern Provinces, Ascension, St.Helena, Comoros, Mauritius, Madagascar, Réunion, Rodrigues, Seychelles, Amur, Khabarovsk, Kuril Is., Primorye, Sakhalin, Kazakhstan, Kirgizistan, Tadzhikistan, Uzbekistan, North Caucasus, Transcaucasus, Afghanistan, Cyprus, East Aegean Is., Iran, Lebanon-Syria, Palestine, Sinai, Turkey, Gulf States, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Inner Mongolia, Manchuria, Qinghai, Tibet, Kazan-retto, Ogasawara-shoto, Sri Lanka, Andaman Is., Cambodia, Laos, Nicobar Is., South China Sea, Thailand, Borneo, Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Maluku, Sulawesi, Sumatera, Christmas I., New Guinea, Solomon Is., Norfolk Is., New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, Western Australia, Kermadec Is., New Zealand North, New Zealand South, Fiji, Gilbert Is., Nauru, Niue, New Caledonia, Samoa, Tonga, Vanuatu, Cook Is., Easter Is., Marquesas, Pitcairn Is., Society Is., Tuamotu, Tubuai Is., Caroline Is., Marianas, Hawaii, British Columbia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward I., Québec, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Vermont, West Virginia, California, New Mexico, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, District of Columbia, Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Bahamas, Bermuda, Cayman Is., Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Netherlands Antilles, Puerto Rico, Trinidad-Tobago, Windward Is., French Guiana, Guyana, Surinam, Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Galápagos, Peru, Brazil West-Central, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil North, Brazil South, Argentina Northeast, Argentina Northwest, Chile Central, Chile South, Desventurados Is., Juan Fernández Is., Paraguay, Uruguay, Crozet Is., Kerguelen, Tristan da Cunha
Kew's description“annual or perennial” · “subtropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker25.093, 121.456 · in the densest population, 118 records (51% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 232 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 21 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 4465 km away. 579 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 7 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 232 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Oxalis corniculataOxalis corniculataOxalis corniculataOxalis corniculataOxalis corniculataOxalis corniculataOxalis corniculataOxalis corniculata

Photographs: (c) Douglas Goldman, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (7); (c) zebedeugalinha, some rights reserved (CC BY).

Photographs: iNaturalist and GBIF media did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Oxalis corniculata, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

In Vitro Antimicrobial Activity of Some Medicinal Plants against Human Pathogenic Bacteria
Sarita Manandhar, Shisir Luitel, Raj Kumar Dahal (2019) · Journal of Tropical Medicine
Antibacterial activity of plant extracts on phytopathogenic Xanthomonas campestris pathovars
S. Satish, K. A. Raveesha, G. R. Janardhana (1999) · Letters in Applied Microbiology
Medicinal Plants Used in Traditional Management of Cancer in Uganda: A Review of Ethnobotanical Surveys, Phytochemistry, and Anticancer Studies
Timothy Omara, Ambrose Kiprop, Rose C. Ramkat, Jackson K. Cherutoi (2020) · Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine
Allelopathic effect of Artemisia argyi on the germination and growth of various weeds
Jinxin Li, Le Chen, Qiaohuan Chen, Yuhuan Miao (2021) · Scientific Reports
Evaluation of Antitumor and Antioxidant Activity of Oxalis Corniculata Linn. against Ehrlich Ascites Carcinoma on Mice
Anil Kumar Kathiriya, Kuntal Das, EP Kumar, KB Mathai (2010) · Iranian Journal of Cancer Prevention
Evaluation of antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity of methanol extract of Oxalis corniculata
Archana R. Juvekar, Sachin Sakat, Sagar B. Wankhede, M Juvekar (2009) · Planta Medica
In vitro antimicrobial potentialities of different solvent extracts of ethnomedicinal plants against clinically isolated human pathogens.
Samarendra Maji, Premanshu Dandapat, Debika Ojha, Chiranjit Maity (2010) · The Journal of Phytology
Effect of plant extracts and citric acid on phytoremediation of metal-contaminated soil
Yaqian Li, Yajun Wang, Muhammad Aman Khan, Wenxuan Luo (2021) · Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Oxalis 7 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence search API
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: filled 2026-09-20
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media did not answercarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: api.gbif.org not asked: offline re-derivation
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 10 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.