Oxalis perennans Haw.

Bushy perennial herb, with very stout primary root 3–7 mm wide towards apex. Stems to c. 20 cm long, numerous, slender, mostly erect and suberect, the outer prostrate, glabrate to densely clothed in ± antrorse hairs. Lvs 3-foliolate. Petioles to 5 cm long, glabrate to densely clothed in antrorse hairs; stipules c. 1.5 mm long, nearly completely adnate to petiole, ciliate. Lamina of leaflets equal, subsessile, 3–14 × 1–4 mm, deeply lobed with sinus c. ⅔ length, sometimes purplish, usually ± fishtail-shaped, glabrate or glabrous above, glabrate or with appressed hairs below, ciliate; calli 0. Fls 1–3; peduncles 2–8 cm long, glabrate or with antrorse hairs; pedicels 0.5–1.5 cm long, both much longer at fruiting, glabrate or with antrorse hairs. Bracts 1–2 mm long, linear-subulate, hairy, situated at base of pedicels; calli 0. Sepals 3–4 mm long, ovate-elliptic or elliptic-oblong, with appressed, antrorse hairs; calli 0. Petals > 6 mm long, ± obovate, yellow, glabrous. Stamens at 2 levels, glabrous; filaments united in lower 1/2, those of longer whorl c. 3 mm long. Styles > longer stamens, densely hairy. Capsule 10–20 mm long excluding styles, narrow-cylindric, often falcate but otherwise straight, ± densely clothed in short retrorse hairs. Seeds c. 1.5 mm long, oblong-ellipsoid; transverse ridges (8)–10–11, obtuse; grooves rather shallow.

[From: Webb et al. (1988) Flora of New Zealand. Volume 4.]

Flowering: Jan.–Apr.