During my woodland wildflower hikes a couple of weeks ago, I found this “lifer” at the edge of a pasture, next to the woods:
After doing a little research, I discovered this is the Violet Wood Sorrel (Oxalis violacea). This 5-petaled beauty is a bit different from a lot of the wildflowers I’ve seen around here. It’s trifoliate (like clover) leaves stay close to the ground, but the flowers are on long stalks that sit much higher than the leaves. I’ve also read that our Missouri species have magenta or lavendar (and, rarely, white) flowers, but never violet! An interesting little wildflower.
