CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · Science & Nature

Oxalis tetraphylla

species of plant

Specimen drawers, botanical folios and brass scientific instruments under study light
Science and natureInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJan 30, 2025
Entity authorityQ1532800
Source-derived summary

Oxalis tetraphylla (often traded under its synonym O. deppei) is a bulbous herbaceous perennial plant from Mexico. It is sometimes sold as lucky clover or shamrock (though it is neither a clover nor a shamrock). In the wild or feral state it is often called four-leaved wood-sorrel after its family, Oxalidaceae. Other English common names for this plant include Lucky Clover, Four-Leaf Sorrel, Four-Leaf Pink-Sorrel and others. It is sometimes called "the iron cross plant" or "oxalis iron cross" because the leaves loosely resemble the iron cross symbol, though this name is not a classic folk term and has fallen out of favour due to the bad political connotations associated with this symbol.

It is in the same genus as the common wood-sorrel (Oxalis acetosella) and has three wild variants: var. tetraphylla (autonym) distributed in the states of Veracruz, México, Morelos and Michoacán, var. mexicana native to Hidalgo and Guerrero regions and var. guerreroensis native to Oaxaca, Guerrero, Michoacán and Colima regions.

Cultivation

Oxalis tetraphylla var.

Editorial summary

“Oxalis tetraphylla” enters the record as species of plant. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Oxalis, tetraphylla and species can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewUseful for establishing the present vocabulary of the subject while preserving a route back to the evidence on which that vocabulary rests. The current 166-word lead offers orientation but no explicit four-digit date, so chronology should not be assumed. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Oxalis, tetraphylla and species.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Oxalis tetraphylla” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Oxalis, tetraphylla and species provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

The date and method of observation matter as much as the stated conclusion, especially where classification or consensus has changed. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jan 30, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q1532800. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.

Critical limits

A general summary may omit uncertainty, sample limits or methodological disagreement that is explicit in the technical record. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Check terminology, classification and the date of the cited evidence. Scientific names and technical consensus can change while older records retain historical value.

Best used for
  • Current terminology
  • Classification context
  • Finding cited technical literature
Verify next

Primary datasets, specimen catalogues, standards bodies and the most recent peer-reviewed literature.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Oxalis tetraphylla”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Oxalis tetraphylla primary sources, Oxalis tetraphylla archive and Oxalis research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Oxalis tetraphylla”?
  2. Is the terminology current, historical or disputed?
  3. Has classification or technical consensus changed since the cited source?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Oxalis tetraphylla” 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.