Wood Sorrel is a small creeping perennial. The flowers have five white petals with lilac veins. The leaflets, grown in threes, are heart-shaped; they sometimes fold up. Both flowers and leaves have long fragile stalks.
The plant grows in and at the edge of woods throughout Ireland; in the west it can be found on shady banks or among bracken. It is sometimes planted to naturalise in a shady part of the garden but must be treated with caution; it can become a rampant weed.
The flowers are out in April and May.
Wood Sorrel grows throughout western Europe and north and central Asia to Sakhalin and Japan.