Species
+

Oxalis articulata Savigny

Pink Oxalis, Pink sorrel, Pink-Sorrel, Pink-sorrel (EN)

Climate known 95 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 articulata, known as pink-sorrel, pink wood sorrel, windowbox wood-sorrel, sourgrass, is a perennial species of flowering plant in the genus Oxalis native to Northern Argentina, Southern Brazil and Uruguay. It has been introduced in Europe in gardens and is now naturalized in these areas.

Text from Wikipedia, “Oxalis articulata”, 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
Savigny
Native to
Brazil South, Argentina Northeast, Argentina Northwest +1
Wild records
24 in range· 15 open

At a glance

Warmest month
27°C
Jan, mean day; nights 19 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1146mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Mar 130 mm (CHELSA)
Light
14–47DLI
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, April to October in the northern hemisphere (October to April at the habitat, southern). Habitat rain 1146 mm a year, wettest March at 130 mm, driest June at 53 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 14 to 47 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 0.0 °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 articulata (Savigny) Kuntze; Acetosella platensis (A.St.-Hil. & Naudin) Kuntze; Acetosella rubra (A.St.-Hil.) Kuntze; Oxalis articulata f. crassipes (Urb.) Lourteig; Oxalis articulata f. guttata (Arechav.) Osten 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: a summer growing season, April to October in the northern hemisphere (October to April at the habitat, southern).

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 (830 mm of 1146 mm) falls in October to April, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 20.2 °C against a yearly mean of 16.7 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: April 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 1146 mm a year, wettest March at 130 mm, driest June at 53 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1146 mm a year at the habitat, 830 mm of it October to April. Wettest month March at 130 mm, driest June at 53 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 963 mm to 1659 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: 14 to 47 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 14 to 47 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 13, the highest 90th-percentile month 48).

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 0.0 °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 0.0 °C, the absolute minimum -3.4 °C, about 4 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 35.9 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 6.8 °C in July (across the envelope cells 3.6 °C to 8.5 °C), warmest day 27.3 °C in January (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 0.0 °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: 58 to 63% 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 13 °C in Jul to 27 °C in Jan; mean night from 7 °C in Jul to 19 °C in Jan. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 1146 mm of rain a year, most in Mar. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 22 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -3.4 °C and the 99th-percentile day 35.9 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-10°10°20°30°40°frost35.9° 99th-percentile day (undated)-3.4° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200mm rainDLI 14–47RH 58–63 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 22 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 / 26–2926 / 25–2824 / 22–2621 / 19–2217 / 15–1914 / 13–1713 / 12–1616 / 14–1917 / 15–2020 / 19–2323 / 22–2626 / 25–28
Night °C19 / 16–2119 / 15–2017 / 14–1913 / 10–1510 / 7–128 / 5–97 / 4–98 / 5–1010 / 6–1112 / 9–1415 / 12–1618 / 14–19
Rain mm123 / 105–155122 / 102–135130 / 106–140105 / 87–12387 / 54–12453 / 31–11054 / 29–14757 / 34–11865 / 54–160120 / 96–158115 / 100–142115 / 100–142
DLI47 / 40–4840 / 36–4132 / 31–3224 / 23–2417 / 16–1914 / 13–1616 / 15–1821 / 20–2329 / 26–3036 / 33–3743 / 39–4447 / 42–48
RH %58 / 55–6459 / 57–6560 / 59–6461 / 60–6462 / 60–6463 / 61–6362 / 59–6360 / 57–6259 / 55–6359 / 56–6458 / 55–6358 / 55–62

Each figure is the median across the 22 grid cells holding the 24 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 2495:2432 (-34.775, -58.375). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -3.4 °C, 1st-percentile night 0.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 35.9 °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 22 distinct grid cells holding the 24 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2495:2432 (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 -35.00_-58.125, lapse-corrected +3 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 18 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.
NativeBrazil South, Argentina Northeast, Argentina Northwest, Uruguay· introduced: Great Britain, Ireland, Norway, Germany, France, Portugal, Spain, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Kriti, Yugoslavia, Krym, Algeria, Libya, Azores, East Aegean Is., Iran, Lebanon-Syria, Turkey, Japan, Korea, Tasmania, Oregon, Oklahoma, California, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Bolivia, Ecuador
Kew's description“tuberous geophyte” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-34.598, -58.483 · in the densest population, 14 records (58% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 24 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 15 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 11 km away. 1543 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 24 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Oxalis articulataOxalis articulataOxalis articulataOxalis articulataOxalis articulataOxalis articulataOxalis articulataOxalis articulata

Photographs: (c) Ryan Donnelly, some rights reserved (CC BY) (7); (c) Elias, some rights reserved (CC BY).

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

Ubisch bodies and pollen ontogeny in Oxalis articulata Savigny
Sonia Rosenfeldt, Beatriz G. Galati (2005) · Biocell
NOTE FLORISTICHE PIEMONTESI N. 13-47
Alberto Selvaggi, Adriano Soldano, Marziano Pascale (2006) · Open Research (University of Surrey)
Evaluation of the allelopathic activity of five Oxalidaceae cover plants and the demonstration of potent weed suppression by Oxalis species
Sayaka Shiraishi, Izumi Watanabe, Katsuji Kuno, Yoshiharu Fujii (2005) · Weed Biology and Management
APUNTES COROLÓGICOS SOBRE NEÓFITOS DE LA FLORA VALENCIANA
Daniel Guillot Ortiz (2003) · Flora montibérica/Flora montiberica
Nitrogen enrichment alters the resistance of a noninvasive alien plant species to Alternanthera philoxeroides invasion
Hao Wu, Sijin Dong, Wang Li, Yuanyuan Zhu (2023) · Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution
First Report of Leaf Blight Disease on Pennisetum sinese in China Caused by Pantoea agglomerans
Yuzhu Han, Ziwei Fan, Yichao Yao, Yanke Su (2020) · Plant Disease
Contribution to the flora of Asian and European countries: new national and regional vascular plant records, 7
Marcin Nobis, Gianniantonio Domina, Marjol Meço, Alfred Mullaj (2018) · Botany Letters
Soil drenching with water extracts of Oxalis articulata Savigny suppress Fusarium wilt of tomato
Sayaka Shiraishi, Izumi Watanabe, Katsuji Kuno, Hideo Ishii (2003) · Weed Biology and Management
A haplotype-resolved chromosomal-level genome assembly of Oxalis articulata
Wenjie Yang, Changci Jiang, Changwei Bi, Zhuang Zhao (2025) · Scientific Data
Chromosome-scale genome assembly for yellow wood sorrel, Oxalis stricta
Joshua C. Wood, John P. Hamilton, Brieanne Vaillancourt, Julia Brose (2026) · G3 Genes Genomes Genetics
Notes et contributions à la flore de Corse, XXII
Daniel Jeanmonod, André Schlüssel (2008) · Archive ouverte UNIGE (University of Geneva)

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 136 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.