Oxalis. Oxalis acetosella. Wood sorrel.

Oxalis. O. Acetosella L. Wood Sorrel. Acetosella. Alleluia, Surelle, Pain de Coucou, Fr. Sauerklee, Hasenklee, G.—Wood sorrel is a small, creeping plant having radical leaves and scapes from 5 to 15 cm. high. (fam. Oxalidaceae). It is a native of Europe and naturalized in the Northern United States. Other indigenous species of oxalis possess similar properties to O. Acetosella. The whole herbaceous portion may be used.

Wood sorrel is without odor, and has an agreeable sour taste. It owes its acidity to acid potassium oxalate or potassium binoxalate (HKO₂O₄).

The fresh plant, eaten raw, is useful in scurvy.

Oxalis crassicaulis Zucc., a Peruvian species, yields edible tubers and, by expression from its leaves, a very sour and astringent juice, which is employed, in the form of syrup, in hemorrhages, chronic catarrh, and gonorrhea, with asserted advantage.

The Dispensatory of the United States of America, 1918, was edited by Joseph P. Remington, Horatio C. Wood and others.