![]() ![]() Oxalis crowds out native wildflowers for light and space, and prevents other plants from gaining a foothold in the land. “If we did nothing, in X many years Twin Peaks would just be one solid mass of yellow, and there wouldn’t be any other plants there,” Sigg says. “It’s just a blitzkrieg.” And the onslaught will probably continue. “In the last 10 years it really got going fast,” he says. By 2003, Sigg says, it was all over the hill. He first noticed a small patch of them in San Francisco’s Grandview Park back in the 1980s. Now, Sigg has watched in horror as oxalis has taken over the coastal grasslands he tends. By the late 1980s, the Los Angeles Times reported in 1988, it was a frustratingly persistent nuisance in home gardens. Oxalis pes-caprae is invasive, a weed native to South Africa that was transplanted to California early in the 1900s, probably to be grown as a demure ornamental plant. “I’ve just been frantic about it,” says Sigg, a retired Golden Gate Park gardener and the Bay’s most outspoken opponent of yellow oxalis. The flowers dot hillsides, parks, and highway medians like the mottled points of light in a Monet, delighting many observers. Commonly known as sourgrass or Bermuda buttercup, it flowers from November to April, and in the last few months oxalis has come out in full force in the Bay Area, encouraged by December and February rains. Delicious hot or cold.O xalis pes-caprae is an attractive little flower with five yellow petals and leaves that are cloven in a way that apparently reminded Linnaeus-who described the species in 1753-of a goat’s foot. Stir in honey and let it dissolve in the strained lemonade. Remove from heat, carefully pull out some of the cooked greens and pour hot liquid through a fine strainer. ![]() In a large kettle, cover oxalis with water and boil for 15 – 20 minutes. Options: Add Dock (Rumex crispus, lemons) Just use the stems, flowers and leaves.Ībundant spring water (I’ll use about a gallon for 2 qts of plant material) Here’s how:Ģ qts Oxalis – pull it right out of the garden, discard the roots and tubers (carefully). Heck when lemons are scarce and oxalis is abundant, you can even make lemonade from it. It offers cover and stability on disturbed sites and prevents erosion. After all, it was introduced into the nursery trade as an ornamental. There are certainly less attractive plants in the world. So why conquer it? Why not enjoy it’s benefits. It’s the backyard “weed” that no one seems to be able to conquer. I mean literally on every available surface – or so it would seem. Here in California, we have a thing with “Sourgrass” or “Bermuda Buttercup” (Oxalis pes caprae). “Tigernuts” aren’t some culty, hunting-club, macho super food. Plus that little plant is actually cultivated in some parts of the world for its nutritious rhizome. Did you know that nutsedge (Cyperus esculentus) will only grow in wet sites? So, if you see it growing, as I did recently in an irrigated container planting, you might get the clue that your container isn’t draining. Like what? Well, like being indicators of soil conditions for one. What they are not realizing, however, is that far from being the bothersome pests they are made out to be, these hard working plants are loaded with benefits. Just the sound of that word makes gardeners the world over roll their eyes and cringe.
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