Oxalidaceae, or the wood-sorrels family, is a family of five genera of flowering plants, with the great majority of the 570 species in the genus Oxalis. The flowers within this family tend to be perfect, and 5-parted with a superior ovary consisting of five fused carpels. Fruits of this family tend to be capsules or berries that are prominently 5-lobed such as the starfruit.
Description
Oxalidaceae can be herbaceous plants, shrubs, and small trees.
Oxalidaceae leaves tend to be pinnately veined, alternate, and clustered with well-developed petioles. The abaxial (under) side of the leaves can have trichomes. Herbaceous plants in this family tend to have their leaves in the form of a rosette.
Some leaves in genera Averrhoa and Biophytum, can be sensitive to both light and touch.
Flowers in this family are perfect, meaning they have a calyx, corolla, gynoecium, and androecium. Oxalidaceae tend to come in parts of 5, having five sepals, five petals, and five fused carpels. The petals of Oxalidaceae flowers tend to be free, or just slightly fused at the base, appearing in red, yellow, white, purple to violet, but never blue.These plants tend to have a superior ovary, that consists of five, fused carpels. Stamens tend to be fused in Oxalidaceae plants, and in two whorls of five, where the outer whorl lines up with the petals and tends to be shorter, while the inner whorl lines up with the sepals and tends to be longer.
Fruits within this family can vary greatly by genus. Averrhoa and Sarcotheca tend to produce berries, Dapania produce a loculicidal capsule, while Biophytum produces a schizocarp. Fruits can vary in color, but the pericarp tends to be 5-lobed, such as the starfruit (Averrhoa carambola), which is cultivated for human consumption.
