Oxalis pes-caprae
species of plant
Oxalis pes-caprae is a species of tristylous yellow-flowering plant in the wood sorrel family Oxalidaceae. Oxalis cernua is a less common synonym for this species. It is commonly known as African wood-sorrel, Bermuda buttercup, Bermuda sorrel, buttercup oxalis, Cape sorrel, English weed, goat's-foot, sourgrass, soursob, or soursop; Afrikaans: suring; Arabic: hommayda (حميضة).
Some of the most common names for the plant reference its sour taste owing to oxalic acid present in its tissues. Indigenous to South Africa, the plant has become a pest plant in different parts of the world that is difficult to eradicate because of how it propagates through underground bulbs.
Name
Oxalis pes-caprae is often called by the common name sourgrass due to its moderately sour flavor. This sourness is caused by an exceptionally high content of oxalic acid.
The specific epithet pes-caprae means 'goat's-foot', possibly in reference to the shape of the leaf.
Description
The Oxalis pes-caprae flower is actinomorphic, with a calyx composed of five free or slightly fused sepals, a sympetalous corolla composed of five fused petals, an androecium composed of ten free stamens in two ranks, and a compound pistil. Native populations in South Africa are heterostylous, flowers of long-styled plants have a stigma held above the two ranks of stamens, mid-styled plants have the stigma in between the two ranks of stamens and short-styled plants have a stigma below both ranks of stamen.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Oxalis pes-caprae” is species of plant. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Oxalis, pes-caprae and species, not as a finished interpretation.
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Datasets, specimens, observations and peer-reviewed methods provide the appropriate test for the technical claims summarized here. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1640921. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Oxalis pes-caprae” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.