Species
+

Oxalis debilis Kunth

Dzumadzile bole, Large-Flowered Pink-Sorrel, Largeflower pink-sorrel, Lavender Sorrel

Climate known 52 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 debilis, the large-flowered pink-sorrel or pink woodsorrel, is a perennial plant and herb in the family Oxalidaceae. Its original distribution is South America but it has become a cosmopolitan species, occurring in all continents except Antarctica. It can be found in both temperate and tropical areas.

Text from Wikipedia, “Oxalis debilis”, 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
Kunth
Native to
Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala +13
Wild records
66 in range· 42 open

At a glance

Warmest month
27°C
Feb, mean day; nights 20 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1672mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jan 203 mm (CHELSA)
Light
22–37DLI
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: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (March to October in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 1672 mm a year, wettest January at 203 mm, driest August at 84 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 22 to 37 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 9.2 °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 debilis (Kunth) Kuntze; Acetosella grandifolia (DC.) Kuntze; Acetosella martiana (Zucc.) Kuntze; Ionoxalis canaminensis Rusby; Ionoxalis martiana (Zucc.) Small and 25 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: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (March to October in the northern hemisphere).

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

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (1250 mm of 1672 mm) takes 8 months, September to April. Mean temperature moves 6.7 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: March to October.

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 1672 mm a year, wettest January at 203 mm, driest August at 84 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1672 mm a year at the habitat, 1250 mm of it September to April. Wettest month January at 203 mm, driest August at 84 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1231 mm to 2667 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, southern 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: 22 to 37 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 22 to 37 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 16, the highest 90th-percentile month 43).

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 9.2 °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 9.2 °C, the absolute minimum 4.2 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 33.0 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 14.1 °C in July (across the envelope cells 10.0 °C to 20.1 °C), warmest day 27.4 °C in February (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 9.2 °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: 64 to 65% 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 22 °C in Jun to 27 °C in Feb; mean night from 14 °C in Jul to 20 °C in Feb. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 1672 mm of rain a year, most in Jan. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 58 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 4.2 °C and the 99th-percentile day 33.0 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°15°20°25°30°35°33.0° 99th-percentile day (undated)4.2° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 22–37RH 64–65 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 58 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 °C27 / 24–3027 / 25–3027 / 24–3026 / 23–2923 / 20–2822 / 19–2722 / 18–2623 / 19–2724 / 20–2725 / 22–2826 / 23–2927 / 23–30
Night °C20 / 17–2320 / 17–2420 / 17–2318 / 15–2216 / 12–2114 / 11–2114 / 10–2015 / 11–2016 / 13–2018 / 15–2118 / 15–2219 / 17–22
Rain mm203 / 65–309160 / 57–218157 / 60–228122 / 57–212122 / 45–304104 / 26–316112 / 19–26984 / 21–282134 / 52–327145 / 75–355156 / 43–250173 / 33–291
DLI36 / 33–4137 / 33–3933 / 30–3929 / 24–3824 / 19–3322 / 16–3123 / 18–3227 / 22–3530 / 24–3633 / 28–3935 / 27–4036 / 30–43
RH %65 / 62–7065 / 61–7065 / 61–6965 / 61–7065 / 61–7065 / 60–7264 / 59–7164 / 57–7065 / 59–7165 / 60–7265 / 60–7165 / 61–70

Each figure is the median across the 58 grid cells holding the 64 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 1512:1812 (14.375, -89.375). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 4.2 °C, 1st-percentile night 9.2 °C, 99th-percentile day 33.0 °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 58 distinct grid cells holding the 64 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1512:1812 (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 14.50_-89.375, lapse-corrected +444 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1347 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.
NativeCosta Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Guyana, Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Brazil West-Central, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil North, Brazil South, Paraguay· introduced: Great Britain, Ireland, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Switzerland, France, Portugal, Spain, Greece, Kriti, Algeria, Morocco, Azores, Canary Is., Cape Verde, Madeira, Ghana, Cameroon, Gulf of Guinea Is., Zaïre, Tanzania, Mozambique, Ascension, St.Helena, Comoros, Mauritius, Réunion, Rodrigues, Seychelles, East Aegean Is., Iran, Gulf States, China South-Central, Hainan, China Southeast, Japan, Korea, Kazan-retto, Ogasawara-shoto, Taiwan, Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, West Himalaya, Myanmar, Vietnam, Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Philippines, Sumatera, Norfolk Is., Fiji, New Caledonia, Samoa, Vanuatu, Cook Is., Easter Is., Society Is., Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, California, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Mexico Northwest, Bermuda, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Trinidad-Tobago, Windward Is., Bolivia, Galápagos, Argentina Northeast, Argentina Northwest, Uruguay
Kew's description“tuberous geophyte” · “subtropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-22.907, -43.173 · in the densest population, 32 records (48% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 66 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 42 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 224 km away. 1777 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 2 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 inside the densest 4° block of the 66 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Oxalis debilisOxalis debilisOxalis debilisOxalis debilisOxalis debilisOxalis debilisOxalis debilisOxalis debilis

Photographs: (c) WATANABE Hitoshi 渡辺仁, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Kaden Slone, some rights reserved (CC BY); no rights reserved · CC0; (c) Michael, Antoni and Nihat Hinczewski, some rights reserved (CC BY) (5).

Photographs: iNaturalist 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 debilis, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Oxalis debilis in China: Distribution of Flower Morphs, Sterile Pollen and Polyploidy
Shi‐Xiao Luo, Dianxiang Zhang, Susanne S. Renner (2006) · Annals of Botany
Antidiabetic and Antioxidant Activity of Hydro-Alcoholic Extract of Oxalis Debilis Kunth Leave in Experimental Rats
Julfikar Ali Junejo (2020) · Bioscience Biotechnology Research Communications
A begomovirus associated with yellow vein symptoms of Oxalis debilis
Favio Eduardo Herrera-Eguez, Nina Aboughanem‐Sabanadzovic, Rodrigo A. Valverde (2015) · European Journal of Plant Pathology
NUTRITIONAL QUALITY OF SIXTEEN TERRESTRIAL WEEDS FOR THE FORMULATION OF COST -EFFECTIVE ANIMAL FEED
Rajwali Khan, M. A. Khan, S. Sultan, K. B. Marwat (2013) · The Journal of Animal and Plant Sciences
New alien species of flowering plants to the flora of the Arabian Peninsula
V. V. Byalt, M. V. Korshunov (2020) · Novitates Systematicae Plantarum Vascularium
First Report of Leaf Spot Caused by Phoma sorghina on Oxalis debilis in China
X. L. Chen, Y. H. Wang, Tao‐Peng Luo (2017) · Plant Disease
Oxalis L. (Oxalidaceae) no Estado de Pernambuco, Brasil
Maria Carolina de Abreu, Reginaldo de Carvalho, Margareth Ferreira de Sales (2008) · Acta Botanica Brasilica
Additions to the vascular flora of the islands of Procida and Vivara (Campania, Southern Italy).
Adriano Stinca, Maria Ravo, Valeria Giacanelli, Fabio Conti (2019) · Unicam Scientific Publications (University of Camerino)
HEPATOPROTECTIVE ACTIVITY OF AQUEOUS EXTRACT OF OXALIS DEBILIS KUNTH AGAINST CCL4 - INDUCED LIVER DAMAGE
Rojini Athokpam, Meenakshi Bawari, Manabendra Dutta Choudhury (2017) · Asian Journal of Pharmaceutical and Clinical Research
Embryological studies of Oxalis debilis Kunth
Sonia Rosenfeldt, Beatriz G. Galati (2012) · Plant Systematics and Evolution

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 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; 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 109 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.