Orange Oxalis

[Mark Griffiths]

hi all, I got this plant as bulbils from the AGS as O. obtusa Brick Orange. It's not obtusa as I know it. This has a definate stem, the leaves are green and the flowers are in umbels. Can anyone ID it - also given that it's matured and flowered so quickly is it likely to become a weed in the greenhouse? Obtusa seeds a little but it's ok here. Nothing like as bad as Freesia laxa.

[Alan_b]

I know nothing whatsoever about Oxalis but if you look at a picture of Oxalis obtusa 'Brick Orange' it really doesn't look that different http://www.southafricanbulbs.com/images/new2013/oxalis_obtusa_brick_orange.jpg to my eyes.  I see green leaves, flowers in umbrels.  To quote from the web site "Leaves and flowers are on top of an unbranched 10cm stem. Just one example of a truly-madly-deeply variable species."

[Mark Griffiths]

thanks Alan. But then I also found this which seems to be the same thing under a different name, Oxalis stenorrhyncha

http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/SouthAfricanOxalisNine

[Alan_b]

Yes, Mark.  Your plant does seem to match the one that is being distributed as Oxalis obtusa 'Brick Orange' but that's not to say that it has been correctly identified as Oxalis obtusa.

[Sandy Leven]

When does it flower? If it flowers in the autumn in the UK then it is probably Oxalis massoniana. There pictures of this in some show reports of the autumn shows in Ponteland on the SRGC site

[Mark Griffiths]

hi, it's in flower right now.

[Lesley Cox]

When does it flower? If it flowers in the autumn in the UK then it is probably Oxalis massoniana. There pictures of this in some show reports of the autumn shows in Ponteland on the SRGC site

The Oxalis Mark asks about is definitely NOT O. massoniana. Its foliage is quite different, flowers too.
There are, however, numerous orange-flowered species from South Africa. I can think of at least 6 here in New Zealand but their names are pretty much muddled, even if valid in the first place.