Plant portrait - Oxalis deppei

This is a dainty little bulbous plant from Mexico. It grows about 20cm tall, producing a fountain of leaves from May until cut down by the first hard frosts of autumn. Red flowers are produced from about July and these will often also continue until the autumn frosts.

This is a delightful plant to grow along the edge of a bed. The clover-like leaves (every single one of them a lucky 4-leaved clover!) have a sharp lemon-like taste rather like sorrel. They make a very pleasant addition to a salad though should not be eaten in large quantities because all parts of the plant contain oxalic acid. This substance is found in a number of foods such as rhubarb and spinach. Whilst adding a pleasantly sharp flavour it can interfere with the absorption of certain nutrients in the body, especially calcium, and therefore needs to be treated with a certain amount of care.

The flowers have a similar, though to my mind even nicer, flavour to the leaves. If we can get Ajna (our 16 month old child) to stop eating them then they make a very pretty addition to the salad bowl.

The plant is not fully hardy in all parts of the country. We leave them out all winter in Cornwall without any problems, but I once lost most of them in a cold winter in Surrey. If in doubt it is best to harvest the bulbs in the autumn once the frosts have cut it back. Where one bulb had been planted you should find a number of bulbs clustered around a tap root that can be 5cm or more long and 3cm wide. This root is crisp and juicy, it occasionally has a slightly acid flavour reminiscent of the leaves but is more often almost tasteless. Rather like eating a supermarket 'Golden Delicious' apple really. Store the bulbs in a cool but frost-free place over the winter and then plant them out in April or May, covering then with about 1cm of soil.

The plants far prefer a sunny place and will need a well-drained soil if they are to thrive. They tolerate our wetter weather but prefer hot dry summers. They grew especially well last year with us in the summer drought. If you can leave them in place over the winter then they will increase steadily, though they are too well behaved to ever become a nuisance. If they ever do become too numerous then it is a simple matter to dig up the surplus in the autumn and pass them on to friends.

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Readers Comments

Plant portrait - Oxalis deppei

Juana del Castillo

(In Spanish: Si quieren recopilar mas informacion acerca del uso de esta planta pueden ponerse en contacto con la Universidad de La Laguna, en las Islas Canarias. Ellos poseen amplia informacion sobre la misma y sobre su historia y usos. Esta planta tuvo

Canary Islands. Cost area between 0-300 m up the level of the sea. Poor soil, sandy and salty.

Plant portrait - Oxalis deppei

bundls Sun Oct 21 23:15:38 2001

One of my favorite plants, how well they do outside in the Northeast during summer

Plant portrait - Oxalis deppei

Sat Aug 3 21:03:10 2002

I just planted some in my window box (North West Essex) and everyone stops to admire my unusual choice. They are very autumnal as well.

Plant portrait - Oxalis deppei

Cletus Mon Mar 3 19:17:17 2003

Hey! Why doesn't someone show a picture of that dang ol' plant? I mean, if it's nice-looking and everything I see no reason to why people don't post those pictures. I'm sure they're awful nice. I'd like to see one before I pay the three hundred dollars for one seed that thing is worth.

Plant portrait - Oxalis deppei

Mon Jun 2 15:34:16 2003

I planted some bulbs early in May after being given them at a friends wedding as a memento of the day.They came through within 2 - 3 weeks and now I have a flower also.

Oxalis deppei

melissa Sat Apr 16 2005

Hi, I used to munch on oxalis as a child, and I have some odd health symptoms now that seem to be associated with calcium and oxalate consumption. You might want to consider not allowing your 16 month old to consume it. from my brief research on the web, it seems to me that it is well-documented that livestock get kidney damage and can die from grazing on plants containing high amounts of oxalates, and some of them are even supposed to process it better than humans do.

Oxalis deppei

Steven Doyle Thu Mar 2 2006

Hi, Cooking will break up the oxalic acid. Eating oxalics are especially dangerous for anyone whose health is compromised. Even raw spinach should be avoided unfortunately, Cooking changes all that. Perhaps Eggs Florentine with Oxalis leaves instead of spinach?

Oxalis deppei

Dave L Fri Mar 17 2006

It's a problem here in the CA SF Bay area; right now my back yard (and much of the whole town) is covered with a pretty carpet of shamrocks with yellow flowers, but soon they will die back leaving nothing but bare dirt blowing around the house all summer and fall. Somehow they still manage to prevent the grass seed I have applied three times from growing into a lawn.

California Native Plant Society

Oxalis deppei

Help Fri Sep 15 2006

Is this an Unusual plant??

Oxalis deppei

Ken Fern Mon Sep 18 2006

The problem Dave L has is not with Oxalis deppei. This is a dainty well-behaved creature with pinkish flowers. The plant Dave is having problems with is most likely Oxalis pes-caprae.

Oxalis deppei

Ken Fern Mon Sep 18 2006

Oxalis deppei is fairly easy to obtain in Britain, usualy under the name of "Iron Cross Plant". The small bulbs will be found for sale in the winter and early spring and are usualy quite cheap. If you are unable to obtain them, then consult "The Plant Finder" at www.rhs.org.uk

Oxalis deppei

Gem Thu Aug 9 2007

I was just searching the internet to find out what the plants in the lawn, at my new house were, I found some pics and used the name to find out more which led me here :) Very interesting stuff mine were growing rather well in june in the north of england and i presume they survived last winter cos they're all over the shop! Very nice though I might pot them up :)

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