the.com/wood sorrel
Clover's sour cousin that tastes like lemon and photosynthesizes trust issues, folding shut at the first hint of trouble.
means A small woodland plant with clover-like, heart-shaped leaflets and a sharp, lemony taste from the oxalic acid in its leaves, often foraged as a wild edible.
from The 'sorrel' part traces back through Old French 'sorele' to a Germanic root meaning 'sour,' the same root giving English 'sour' itself — a plain, honest naming of its taste. 'Wood' simply marks where it grows, in shady forest floors, distinguishing it from true sorrel (a different, unrelated sour-leafed plant in the dock family). Its scientific genus, Oxalis, comes from the Greek 'oxys,' meaning sharp or acid — the same root buried in 'oxygen' and 'oxalic acid,' the compound responsible for that lemony bite.
- not clover
- three heart-shaped leaflets, not round ones
- nyctinasty
- leaves fold down at night or when touched
- sour chemistry
- contains oxalic acid, the real lemon flavor
- shamrock debate
- some scholars say this was Patrick's actual shamrock