Oxalis flava var. fabifolia

Oxalis flava var. fabifolia, commonly the pealeaf palm sorrel and previously O. fabifolia, is a low-growing stemless perennial.

Its smooth, blue-green leaves are divided digitately into up to twelve obovate or round leaflets with entire and wavy or toothed margins. The leaf stalks are sturdy and cylindrical, channelled or winged.

Flowers grow solitary on short stalks, each with five narrow, out-curving sepals. The funnel-shaped corolla has five rounded, spreading petal lobes. Flower colour is pale yellow or white, sometimes with pink in the throat and yellow in the base. Flowering happens late in autumn and early in winter.

The variety distribution is restricted from Van Rhynsdorp and Klawer in the Western Cape to Nieuwoudtville in the Northern Cape where the photo was taken.

The habitat is succulent Karoo receiving winter rain, the plants growing in clay soils. The variety is not considered to be threatened in its habitat early in the twenty first century (Manning, 2007; Bond and Goldblatt, 1984; iNaturalist; http://redlist.sanbi.org).