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Oxalis erythrorhiza; photograph Ezequiel Racker, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF CC BYEzequiel Racker, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF

Oxalis erythrorhiza Gillies ex Hook. & Arn.

Oxalidaceae · Argentina South, Argentina Northwest +2

Cited as Kew's World Checklist cites it, Oxalis erythrorhiza Gillies ex Hook. & Arn.: GBIF's backbone key for this page carries the name with another author, Gillies.

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Oxalis erythrorhiza, photograph Ezequiel Racker, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFOxalis erythrorhiza, photograph Ezequiel Racker, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFOxalis erythrorhiza, photograph Ezequiel Racker, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFOxalis erythrorhiza, photograph Ezequiel Racker, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFOxalis erythrorhiza, photograph Ezequiel Racker, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFOxalis erythrorhiza, photograph Morten Ross, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF 24 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-13.5°C
Record low -21.2 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
16°C
Jan and Feb at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,212mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
17–57DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet winters: the rain comes November to March (May to September at the habitat), with nights below freezing; no growing season read. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

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.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Oxalis", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a rainy season and no growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (879 mm of 1,208 mm) falls in May to September, the cooler part of the year, but the mean nightly low is below freezing in June, July, August, September and October, so the rule reads no growing season from it. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: November to March.

Rain

1,208 mm in the median year at the habitat, 879 mm of it May to September. Wettest month June at 251 mm, driest month February at 37 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 727 mm to 2,322 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,212 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,208 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, southern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 17 to 57 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 10, the highest 90th-percentile month 59).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -13.5 °C, the absolute minimum -21.2 °C, 10,704 frost nights in 44 years, 243.3 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 26.6 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low -9.9 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range -14.3 °C to -3.6 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 15.6 °C in January (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -13.5 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 52 to 56% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: 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 moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

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

Light. 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.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected +626 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, southern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Oxalis erythrorhiza through the yearWarmest months January and February, mean daily high 16 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low -9.9 °C; 1,208 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, southern hemisphere.-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°frost26.6° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-21.2° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 17–57RH 52–56%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 34 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C16 / 12–1916 / 12–1914 / 11–178 / 5–113 / -1–7-1 / -5–4-2 / -6–30 / -5–42 / -3–66 / 1–1010 / 5–1314 / 10–17
Night °C3 / 0–63 / 0–72 / -2–5-2 / -6–2-6 / -10–0-9 / -13–-3-10 / -14–-4-9 / -13–-3-8 / -12–-2-5 / -9–-1-2 / -6–21 / -2–5
Rain mm44 / 20–9737 / 22–9951 / 27–9166 / 37–148185 / 48–381251 / 69–463200 / 79–355158 / 64–29185 / 38–17248 / 26–12942 / 26–8241 / 22–86
DLI56 / 50–5849 / 43–5239 / 31–4429 / 20–3520 / 13–2617 / 10–2219 / 12–2526 / 17–3236 / 27–4247 / 37–5254 / 46–5857 / 50–59
RH %52 / 46–5652 / 48–5653 / 47–5952 / 46–6354 / 46–6755 / 46–6953 / 45–6754 / 46–6655 / 47–6356 / 47–6256 / 46–6053 / 46–58
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 34 grid cells holding the 56 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 2541:2197 (-37.075, -70.125). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -21.2 °C, 1st-percentile night -13.5 °C, 99th-percentile day 26.6 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 34 distinct grid cells holding 56 of the 56 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2541:2197 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -37.00_-70.000, lapse-corrected +626 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 2411 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 the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeArgentina South, Argentina Northwest, Chile Central, Chile North · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker-35.98, -70.39 · in the densest population, 48 records (66% of those in range)
Kew's description“perennial or subshrub” · “subalpine or subarctic” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 73 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 56 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 34 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 25 km away. 1 record outside the WCVP native range not used. 17 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 2° block of the 73 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Oxalis erythrorhiza, photograph 1did not loadOxalis erythrorhiza, photograph 2did not loadOxalis erythrorhiza, photograph 3did not loadOxalis erythrorhiza, photograph 4did not loadOxalis erythrorhiza, photograph 5did not loadOxalis erythrorhiza, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: Ezequiel Racker, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF (5); Morten Ross, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF.

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Ochetophila nana Ochetophila nana Rhamnaceae Photo: CC BY, Krzysztof Ziarnek, KenraizLatace andina Latace andina Amaryllidaceae Photo: CC BY, Nicolás LavanderoMutisia sinuata Mutisia sinuata Asteraceae Photo: CC BY, Cody HinchliffSchizanthus grahamii Schizanthus grahamii Bright pink Chilean butterfly flower Photo: CC BY, Morten RossAzorella ruizii Azorella ruizii Apiaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Grzegorz GrzejszczakAlstroemeria spathulata Alstroemeria spathulata Alstroemeriaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Grzegorz Grzejszczak

Other Oxalis 84 in the reference

Oxalis acetosella Oxalis acetosella Wood-sorrel Photo: CC BY, Марина ДавлетшинаOxalis adenophylla Oxalis adenophylla Silver Shamrock Photo: CC BY-SA, Grzegorz GrzejszczakOxalis alpina Oxalis alpina Alpine woodsorrel Photo: CC BY, Michal HonskusOxalis arenaria Oxalis arenaria Oxalidaceae Photo: CC BY, Constanza Vargas VillegasOxalis articulata Oxalis articulata Pink-sorrel Photo: CC BY, Ryan DonnellyOxalis barrelieri Oxalis barrelieri Barrelier's woodsorrel Photo: CC BY, Guillaume DelaitreOxalis bowiei Oxalis bowiei Bowie's wood-sorrel Photo: CC BY, 岸本年郎Oxalis brasiliensis Oxalis brasiliensis Oxalidaceae Photo: CC BY, Saryu Mae 前 朝琉 Oxalis brevis Oxalidaceae Oxalis californica Oxalis californica Oxalidaceae Photo: CC BY, Rachel AllinghamOxalis caprina Oxalis caprina Oxalidaceae Photo: CC BY, Dave RichardsonOxalis ciliaris Oxalis ciliaris Oxalidaceae Photo: CC BY, Karen Eichholz all 85 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Acetosella bryoides; Acetosella erythrorhiza; Oxalis bryoides; Oxalis guessfeldtii; Oxalis hosseana and 1 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidata

The record

Family
Oxalidaceae
Described by
Gillies ex Hook. & Arn.
Native to
Argentina South, Argentina Northwest, Chile Central +1
Wild records
73 in range · 34 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22GBIF's key 3626437 is Oxalis erythrorhiza Gillies; the page links Kew's Oxalis erythrorhiza Gillies ex Hook. & Arn., and the name is cited as Kew cites it
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -37.00_-70.000, lapse-corrected +626 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist taxon inat.taxon not asked
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild not asked
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 7 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…