Just last week I wrote a blog about stopping on my daily walk to look around and really notice what was there. A few days later, I happened to stop after walking only for a minute beyond my house. I was admiring the wood sorrel along the side of the road. It was early in the day, and the flowers were still open. (They usually close during the heat of the day.) The large patch of yellow flowers was so pretty!
I was about to continue my walk and for some reason I decided to look closer. I bent down toward the ground and examined some of the flowers at the edge of the large patch. Let me just say that I was stunned. Most of that patch of wood sorrel was in fact wood sorrel. But on the edge of this patch was a different species of wood sorrel: Small’s wood sorrel (Oxalis colorea). Small’s wood sorrel has red lines in the throat of the flower, and grows in open, sunny places. (Another species of wood sorrel, Oxalis grandis, has red lines in the throat, but it grows in the shady woods with rich soil.)
I couldn’t believe it! How many times have I just walked by a patch of wood sorrel and missed this other species? Where else is it growing? Now I’m on a mission to get outside early in the day to examine all the patches of wood sorrel!
Stay curious!