Oxalis smithiana
Eckl. & Zeyh.
Narrow-leaved sorrel
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(c) Brendan Cole, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-ND), uploaded by Brendan Cole
(c) Brendan Cole, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-ND), uploaded by Brendan Cole
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(c) Tony Rebelo, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), uploaded by Tony Rebelo
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(c) Andrew Hankey, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), uploaded by Andrew Hankey
(c) Andrew Hankey, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), uploaded by Andrew Hankey
What to Eat
Edible parts: Leaves, Corms, Root
The roots, leaves, and corms are eaten as snacks.
Where to Find It
It is a subtropical plant.
Africa, Eswatini, South Africa, Southern Africa, Swaziland,
Countries: Angola, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Benin, Botswana, Congo (DRC), Central African Republic, Congo (Republic), Cote d'Ivoire, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Djibouti, Algeria, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Gambia, Guinea, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Comoros, Liberia, Lesotho, Libya, Morocco, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sudan, Sierra Leone, Senegal, Somalia, South Sudan, Sao Tome & Principe, Eswatini, Chad, Togo, Tunisia, Tanzania, Uganda, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe
How to Identify
A herb. The bulb is 3.5 cm long. There are only a few leaves. The stalk is 9 cm long. The leaflets have deeply divided lobes. They are about 2 cm long by 3 mm wide. The flowers occur singly on stalks 12 cm long. The petals are mauve or white. They are 2 cm long.
Names & Synonyms
Oxalis smithii Sond.
References (9)
- Fox, F. W. & Young, M. E. N., 1982, Food from the Veld. Delta Books. p 286
- Long, C., 2005, Swaziland's Flora - siSwati names and Uses http://www.sntc.org.sz/flora/
- Ogle & Grivetti, 1985,
- Peters, C. R., O'Brien, E. M., and Drummond, R.B., 1992, Edible Wild plants of Sub-saharan Africa. Kew. p 158
- Ruiters-Welcome, A. K., 2019, Food plants of southern Africa. Ph.D. thesis. Univ. of Johannesburg p 84
- Swaziland's Flora Database http://www.sntc.org.sz/flora
- van Wyk, Be., & Gericke, N., 2007, People's plants. A Guide to Useful Plants of Southern Africa. Briza. p 92
- Welcome, A. K. & Van Wyk, B.-E., 2019, An inventory and analysis of the food plants of southern Africa. South African Journal of Botany 122 (2019) 136–179
- World Checklist of Useful Plant Species 2020. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
