Not from a simple leaf stem cutting, no. But if you have taken a piece of the plant including some basal or creeping stem tissue it could well root. Beware of the dehiscent seeds if you do decide to grow it. They can fall and germinate several feet from the parent plant. This feature makes it a real pain in nursery pots.

I have stuck a stem (no root attached) of Purple Shamrock (Oxalis Trangularis) in a bit of water and it does root. But, I have never tried to put it in dirt. The leaf opens and closes in the evening just like the plant and they survive for about 6 months that way.

I have Pink woodsorrel (Oxalis debilis) trying to take over my yard. It is pretty and forms a nice mound and has the prettiest pink flowers. But I need to get it in check as it reseeds heavily. The yellow one (Oxalis corniculata), I consider a weed that also reseeds heavily. It grows in a more matted to the ground form and is not pretty, IMO.

It would be useful to see a picture of this cutting. If it is just leaves and petioles I still believe it is unlikely to root. If there is any piece of the creeping stems attached it may well do.

I'll start one today for you and post pics along the way. I've done it several times.

Cutting put in plain tap water just now.

I'll update when it roots.

the oxalis corniculata is green and purple. i took a cutting from the vining part of the plant - looked for that had new growth on it. here it is. the left side is where i took the cutting the right side has the new growth.

OK, Christy - I see you have part of the vining stem so that should root fine.

Carolina Girl - I wasn't very clear above. I meant pictures of the OP's cutting. I'm impressed that you could grow roots from a petiole. I'll be interested to see how it progresses.

Gotcha ;)

I've never put a rooted stem in dirt, I'll try that, too, to see if it grows.

great, thank you! how should i root it? in water or soil?

floral_uk, here's the rooted cutting. The root started to show about a week or so ago.

ever tried it in soil?

No I never put it on soil. I forgot. oops :)

lol but hey, if it roots in water surely it'll root in soil, right?

Carolina girl, I know you posted this well over a year ago but I'm curious if you ever had any luck getting it to grow? I took a few snippings from a friends work and after several weeks it finally grew some roots until my cat chewed up the two pieces I had. I went back and got 8 more clippings. This is the only sight I've came cross that had the same question about rooting and growing it without the bulbs. Please let me know if you were able to grow it

Yes, these can be started by a simple leaf cutting. I accidentally severed a healthy leaf while trimming away some dead excess and felt REALLY bad about it! I immediately immersed the cut-off leaf in collected rain water and set its clear glass container in a warm sunny window... but what made matters worse was the little guy continued to open and close daily as if it were still attached.. Talk about rubbing salt into the wound! (I'm kind of goofy about shamrocks because they're so doggoned cute!)

At any rate, I left the jar there for roughly five months, carefully refreshing the water every two weeks, then noticed what appeared to be fine root hairs growing from the stem's distal end... (complete with two crazy tiny shamrock leaves mixed in with them.)

After retrieving a small pot filled with Miracle Grow mix, I opened a slit in the soil and more or less "washed" the fragile roots and nearly microscopic leaves into it by using a teaspoon. Within two weeks, the two original leaves slowly emerged next to the now shriveled parent leaf and these were eventually followed by increasingly larger leaves, then flowers. At this point there are approximately twenty leaves and a few flowers gracing this rapidly growing shamrock number two in our household...

I have to eat my words of 2 years ago. I am really very surprised a new plant could be grown from a leaf petiole with no stem attached. Can we see a photo of the new baby?

First photo is how "Baby Skipper" looks today. Obviously, "Tyrannosaur Skipper" looms to the right. I'll try to add a pic of when the little guy was just starting... hope these come through

I do am shocked...would have never thought it was possible.

Many plants can form roots on a leaf stem, but it doesn't necessarily follow that once roots form, a complete plant will be subsequent. And just to be clear, I'm not suggesting that any of the plants in the species oxalis cannot form a complete plant from only a leaf and its petiole.

As branches form and where leaves occur along the length of the branch, areas of meristematic activity (foliar embryos), also form. These areas are capable of differentiating into either of a plant's organ systems - a root system, or a shoot system, which consists of 2 parts - the vegetative (non-reproductive) parts of the plant, such as the leaves and the stems, and the reproductive parts of the plant, which include flowers and fruits. If these areas of meristematic activity are not present in the propagule, it must be capable of forming an adventitious bud from leaf stem tissues. Not all plants have that capability. Ficus and schefflera are two that come to mind immediately. Plants that lack foliar embryos must be capable of reorganizing cells into areas of meristematic activity (de novo regeneration). From wound-induced secondary meristems they must be able to dedifferentiate leaf stem tissues and redifferentiate the cells to form an adventitious bud that can give rise to a new shoot system ....... or all you'll ever have is a root system growing from a leaf and its stem.

Al

Some of the new hardy bananas come from the Himalayan area, of course they can grow there.

Not being a botanist (If anything, I'm a reconstructive entomologist), I more or less follow what you are saying when it comes to embryonic cellular tissue and what it can or can not produce "down the line". However, whether it could or couldn't have happened in this case, it did... Sometimes I just rack it up to little green men with magic wands :) That way my head doesn't hurt trying to figure it all out!

As far as growing bananas in Wisconsin, there are depressingly few types, such as Musa Basjoo (Japanese fiber banana) that can, with a maximal effort of mulching, wrapping and southern exposure (that and a whole lot of luck) be brought through a "normal" winter here... it won't be happiness, but it'll still be there. This last week week we suffered low temps of -30 degrees Fahrenheit, (50 below wind chills) and unless the soil was heated directly around the corms (which it wasn't), spring will reveal rotten balls of mush. That's why we have greenhouses, seed companies and EBAY to procure and grow our next batch.

My surprise was based on a non-scientific hunch about the nature of Oxalis leaves and an assumption they were similar to other soft herbaceous foliage. I know many plants can be reproduced from leaf cuttings but Oxalis just didn't feel like one of them. The various Oxalis species I'm used to reproduce from seeds, bulbils or stems but I've never seen one grow from a single leaf petiole. I could try an experiment but the truth is the species I have are far too quick to spread, even without my help.

Hu - no one said it didn't, couldn't, or shouldn't happen. In fact, I was very careful to add this disclaimer so no one could possibly think I might be a latent oxalis denier: "And just to be clear, I'm not suggesting that any of the plants in the species oxalis cannot form a complete plant from only a leaf and its petiole."

I try never to operate at beyond the limits of my knowledge, and I didn't know for sure if oxalis or species therein were capable of de novo regeneration, and I didn't feel like doing the research - all of which precluded me from going there.

Al

I often operate on hunches Al. But I always qualify them :)

B-B-But... all I did was stick a little damaged leafy in water because I felt sorry for it. :(....

Anyhow, at the sorrowfully advanced age that I am, I've found the best approach to nature study is only accepting answers that come in many shades of gray, NO black or white allowed!! A long time ago I knew absolutely everything, but life has that special way of dealing with "experts" like my former self... Oh what fools we mortals can be at times! At any rate, the point is that we learn,. kick it all around and have fun in the process. You guys have been great! Divi.

Well phrased, I don't mind being wrong :) The only problem is I may forget this 'fact' in six months or a year (advanced age) (lol).

Actually that's one of the wonders of gardening, plants amaze you and/or you're always learning.

I just stumbled upon this thread, and coincidentally I've got about eight Oxalis stems currently growing roots successfully in water:

Al, would you suggest moving these cuttings to gritty mix or 5:1:1? The gritty mix almost seems too "harsh" for such an apparently fragile root system.

I'd like to plant these within the next month or so, and will post updates here with their growth progress.

Oxalis prefers sharp drainage, so either medium would be appropriate. Roots that come to be during periods of inundation are very different physiologically from roots that form in a solid medium, and water-formed roots transition from liquid environs to a solid medium poorly, so the sooner you make the transition, the less likely you are to see the plant collapse as a result of the roots' inability to function normally in a solid medium.

The gritty mix might seem harsh if you haven't grown in it, but I find it a more productive medium than the 5:1:1 mix, with only a very few exceptions I've discovered. That idea (harsh) is fairly common. One looks at the gritty mix and thinks 'how am I going to get anything to grow in THAT stuff'? The reason might be twice removed from the idea that a rich and black soil usually = a productive soil ……. in the garden. Almost all new container gardeners initially carry over that belief to container culture, and think you shouldn't be able to beat growing in compost. Growing in containers is a completely different animal compared to growing in the ground. By comparison on a 1 - 10 scale, if growing in the ground was represented by 1, and full hydroponics was a 10, growing conventionally in containers would probably be a 7 or 8. Growing in pots is much closer to hydroponics than growing in the earth, so different angles of approach are required to be proficient at either or both.

Al

Interesting, so you're saying I'm better off transplanting these cuttings to gritty mix sooner than later? Would you say, according to that picture, it's okay to move them to gritty mix now? The cuttings are in standard-sized mason jars for reference. I know Oxalis roots usually are very fine, even on my mature plants, so the size of those roots in water is about what I'd expect.

Also, how do you typically decided to put a houseplant in 5:1:1 rather than gritty? I've seen on some older posts around these forums you've suggested 5:1:1 for a Monstera, so that's why I planted mine in 5:1:1, but I'm just curious if there are any tricks as to knowing why or when to choose 5:1:1 over gritty.

Derrick, I do the soil introduction when those fine, hairlike roots actually start producing miniature leaves (at least with my variety of Oxalis). At this stage, they seem to take much better. Soil?... Miracle grow potting mix with about 1/4 to 1/3 by volume of clean playground sand worked in. Bottom of pot lined with an inch or so of lava stones and drilled full of holes for direct drainage. Lots of water at first, then taper off to a more normal moist but not wet scheme and don't put them in direct sun... keep the little guys around low 70s (F) if you can too.

Yes...definately can be grown from a cutting...my late mother got this leaf cutting thrown roadside.This was the last plant she planted and told us to take care of the baby ☘️.So,its four years now. Did a ✂️ recently as few leaves got rusted. Seeded a single seed in another...as found lying...in balcony ...(some mischief done by my little brother).and another in water 💧.Let's see how it comes out....

Planted by my mom...fours

The second plant ...from 1 seed....☘️😁

This is 💦 water

In my experience, both purple and green shamrock (oxalis triangularis and oxalis regnellii) do root from just a leaf (petiole, no stem) stuck in dirt. My success rate is about 1 in 5; I've probably done it ~50 times. I'm sure the success rate would increase if I took a bit of care or delicacy in the process; however, part of the pleasure for me in propagation is the "just see what happens" gamble. I feel lucky when it works, and I don't mind when it doesn't. (This is a life philosophy for most of my hobbies.)

I snip when my container garden gets too tall; I stab an available bit of dirt with a Papermate pen, tuck the leaf into the dirt, and then close the dirt around it. After a week, I pull out the ones which aren't thriving. The ones that root will thrive for months on end.

All of my plants live (or die) in pots that have a bit of perlite at the bottom, and then the dirt itself is 3 parts Miracle Gro Seed Starting Potting Mix to 1 part Miracle Gro perlite. This has worked with pots inside (east facing window with lots of light) and pots outside (west facing porch with limited light).

I'm about to try this same (admittedly unscientific and sloppy) prop method for velvet sunset shamrock and burgundy (oxalis spiralis vulcanicola and oxalis spiralis Zinfandel). I'll take pics of any successes.

Thanks to everyone in this community for being so passionate, articulate, and helpful! So glad I found y'all!

Updating after 4 months of extensive propagating. The sunset shamrock struggled — success rate was approximately 1 in 20, if that. (The mother plant is healthy and thriving — the props are just fussy and fragile.)

The burgundy was much more forgiving — success rate was approximately 3 in 5. Moreover, the propagated burgundy grew so much that I was able to snip and re-pop three times in a few months. I’m due to do so again.

This was true for containers indoors and outside, as per my prior description.