Bermuda buttercup with western spotted cucumber beetle
Oxalis pes-caprae with Diabrotica undecimpunctata
Oxalidaceae

I still enjoy sucking on the stems of the Bermuda buttercup, aka sourgrass. I just have to make sure the stems I pick aren't anywhere near where dogs can do their thing, kinda like not eating yellow snow. This plant comes from South Africa.

ps 03/09/11 - In the past 2 years we've seen an explosion of this flower in places we used to never see it. For an excellent blog post, see Curbstone Valley Farm.

redwood sorrel
Oxalis oregana
Oxalidaceae

As the name suggests, I often see massive carpets of shamrock-shaped redwood sorrel under redwoods. The pic above shows leaf litter from coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) and tanoak (Lithocarpus densiflorus) which is a beech, not a true oak. Most of the redwood sorrel flowers I've seen in the area are white like shown here, not deep pink like is commonly pictured online.

Bermuda buttercup
Oxalis pes-caprae
Oxalidaceae

This is the first time I've witnessed Oxalis overtaking the neon pink/purple ice plant.

Bermuda buttercup
Oxalis pes-caprae
Oxalidaceae

It's also known as sour-grass. I first learned to suck the sour juice of these stems while playing behind the church and waiting for the grownups to be done with their Sunday socializing.

I noticed Bermuda buttercups everywhere early this spring, even more so than usual and even among Pacific Grove's famed hot pink ice plant.