Oxalis corniculata
- noun
- Specialized
:
sorrel rastrera
- You can identify Oxalis corniculata by its trifoliate leaves and tiny yellow flowers.
Examples
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The garden was quickly overrun by Oxalis corniculata, making it difficult to maintain the flower beds.
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Many gardeners struggle to control the spread of Oxalis corniculata on their lawns.
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The garden was overrun by Oxalis corniculata.
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Is Oxalis corniculata a common weed in your area?
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Many gardeners struggle to control the spread of Oxalis corniculata on their lawns.
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You can identify Oxalis corniculata by its trifoliate leaves and tiny yellow flowers.
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The garden was quickly overrun by Oxalis corniculata, making it difficult to maintain the flower beds.
Synonyms
A small weed that grows close to the ground with leaves like a clover and small yellow flowers
A small low weed with many branches and small yellow flowers that spreads over lawns and gardens
How Weedy
Surface Forms
Morphology
Oxalis + corniculata
The form is a Latin binomial (genus + specific epithet), so a learner who knows 'Oxalis' and 'corniculata' would recognize this as the name of a species of Oxalis and thus infer it refers to a plant. However, the specific descriptive information (creeping, mat-forming habit and weediness) is not derivable from the Latin epithet for a typical B1 learner, and taxonomic Latin is not fully transparent to non-specialists.
Etymology
Oxalis corniculata comes from older Greek and Latin words that describe the plant: Oxalis points to its 'sour' tasting leaves and corniculata means 'little horn', for the tiny horn-shaped seed pods. So the name gives a simple picture — a sour-tasting weed with small horn-like fruits — which helps you remember the plant.