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Genus of flowering plants

Oxalis ('/ɒ//k//s//ə//l//ᵻ//s/ (American English) or /ɒ//k//s//'//ɑː//l//ᵻ//s/ (British English)) is a large genus of flowering plants in the wood sorrel family Oxalidaceae, comprising over 550 species. The genus occurs throughout most of the world, except for the polar areas; species diversity is particularly rich in tropical Brazil, Mexico, and South Africa. Many of the species are known as wood sorrels (sometimes written "woodsorrels" or "wood sorrels") as they have an acidic taste reminiscent of the sorrel proper (Rumex acetosa), which is only distantly related. Some species are called yellow sorrels or pink sorrels after the color of their flowers instead. Other species are colloquially known as false shamrocks, and some called sourgrasses. For the genus as a whole, the term oxalises is also used.

Wood sorrel (a type of oxalis) is an edible wild plant that has been consumed by humans around the world for millennia. In Dr. James Duke's Handbook of Edible Weeds, he notes that the Native American Kiowa people chewed wood sorrel to alleviate thirst on long trips, the Potawatomi cooked it with sugar to make a dessert, the Algonquin considered it an aphrodisiac, the Cherokee ate wood sorrel to alleviate mouth sores and a sore throat, and the Iroquois ate wood sorrel to help with cramps, fever and nausea. The leaves of scurvy grass sorrel (O. enneaphylla) were eaten by sailors travelling around Patagonia as a source of vitamin C to avoid scurvy. In India, creeping wood sorrel (O. corniculata) is eaten only seasonally, starting in December–January. The Bodos of north east India sometimes prepare a sour fish curry with its leaves. The leaves of common wood sorrel (O. acetosella) may be used to make a lemony tasting tea when dried.

In the past, it was a practice to extract crystals of calcium oxalate for use in treating diseases and as a salt called sal acetosella or "sorrel salt" (also known as "salt of lemon"). Growing oca tuber root caps are covered in a fluorescent slush rich in harmaline and harmine which apparently suppresses pests. Creeping wood sorrel and perhaps other species are apparently hyperaccumulators of copper. The Ming Dynasty text Precious Secrets of the Realm of the King of Xin from 1421 describes how O. corniculata can be used to locate copper deposits as well as for geobotanical prospecting. It thus ought to have some potential for phytoremediation of contaminated soils.

Several species are grown as pot plants or as ornamental plants in gardens, for example, O. versicolor. Oxalis flowers range in colour from whites to yellow, peaches, pink, or multi coloured flowers. Some varieties have double flowers, for example the double form of O. compressus. Some varieties are grown for their foliage, such as the dark purple leaved O. triangularis. Species with four regular leaflets – in particular O. tetraphylla (four leaved pink sorrel) – are sometimes misleadingly sold as "four leaf clover", taking advantage of the mystical status of four leaf clover.