The tutor checks the front yard for a plant identification.

I first noticed sheep sorrel about a year ago on a page of the field guide. While I didn’t recognize it, the guide reported that it definitely grows here and is very common, especially around human settlement. I wondered how I’d never noticed it before, since I must have seen it. Its columns of red flowers – although they can also be yellow – would seem hard to miss.

June 2015, picking up my son from possibly his last dance class of the season, I noticed some sheep sorrel at the edge of the parking lot. Just as the guide predicted, it was thriving on a margin of human development. Somehow, it blended into the scenery; I only caught it because I knew what I was looking for.

Besides its columns of tiny red or yellow flowers, sheep sorrel has membranes on the stem where leaves (or stalks) grow out from it. The leaves themselves can be narrow, but may branch outward as they grow from the stalk or stem.

I’ve been noticing sheep sorrel around town, but in fact there is some in the front yard. That’s the specimen I checked closely to be sure of the identification:)

Source:

Pojar, Jim and Andy MacKinnon. Plants of Coastal British Columbia. Vancouver:
   BC Ministry of Forests and Lone Pine Publishing, 1994.

Jack of Oracle Tutoring by Jack and Diane, Campbell River, BC.