Flowering stalks and leaves smooth, 3 to 8 inches tall, arising from a perennial, brownish, scaly bulb. Leaves few or several, slender-stemmed, one-half to 1 ¼ inches wide. Leaflets three, broader than long, notched at the apex. Flowers three to ten, or rarely more on each stalk, forming a loose, umbellate inflorescence at the summit, which is taller than the leaves. Each flower two-thirds to three-fourths of an inch long on a short, slender pedicel; sepals blunt, five in number, with tubercles at the apex; petals five, rose-purple, lighter toward the base, blunt, about three times as long as the sepals; stamens ten; capsule ovoid, about one-fifth of an inch in diameter.

In open, usually rather dry woodlands, shaded hillsides and thickets; sometimes in open, recently cleared land, Massachusetts to Florida and Texas, west to Minnesota. Flowering in May and June.

Memoir 15 N. Y. State Museum

Plate 121

A. Violet Wood Sorrel

A. Violet Wood Sorrel - Ionoxalis violacea