Leaves can fold up when it starts to get to much sun for it's liking. They like to stay moist and grow like weeds. The older leaves can loose color just from age. Give lots of bright indirect light with some direct sun.

I love these plants and they make amazing house plants. If they are not getting enough light, they tend to fold their leaves; however, in your case, since your plant was fine before, I would suggest that a repot is needed, as they have probably exhausted the soil and are now living on their own resources, their corms, which will need to be fed with fresh compost.

Just tip them out of the pot, you will find dormant corms in there too, and repot, dividing if the rootball is very congested.

Incidentally, I have another, a green variety with snow-white flowers, and I have just bought a variety known as 'Fanny' from an eBay seller. This has green leaves with pale, almost white centres; I was astonished to find a list of other cultivars on websites - I know I used to have one with a gold-edge but that seems to have gone into hiding or 'passed on' :( I've found the names of about sixteen already.

This plant is also known as Oxalis regnellii, by the way. Yours, (known in the US as Purple Shamrock), really resembles butterflies at times, doesn't it? It's breathtaking in the light.

When my mom was still living, I would confiscate her (oxalis) plants every September and let them go dry & die back. I would then put the pot in the basement and not water all winter. At the first of may, I would tip the soil mass out of the pot, break it up, and pot the dried bulbs/tubers in fresh soil. When they started popping up out if the soil in about 2 weeks, I'd give them back so she could enjoy them until the following fall. They really do appreciate that winter's rest ...... and they do prefer a very fast-draining, well-aerated soil.

Al

Your soil looks way too dry. I definitely recommend a thorough watering.

I have a beautiful purple oxalis that was given to me by my mother! I really love it. I keep it in an east (I believe) facing window where it gets a decent amount of light and it blooms like crazy. I love how the leaves open up when the sun is out and close when the sun goes down. I find this plant to be pretty easy to care for. When it's thirsty, the leaves stay closed as they would when it's dark out.

I've had it since sometime around St. Patrick's Day.

What a lovely specimen. There are various ways of growing this plant, and there is no need at all to allow it to go dormant. Some do out of convenience, but it's not necessary, and if I had been Al's mother I would have been pretty indignant, unless it was my choice that my plant go dormant, of course.

Had I been your father, I'd have spent some extra time and invested the extra effort to ensure a level of refinement in my daughter that would provide pause for consideration before saying something intentionally hurtful.

Winter indoors is a stressful time for oxalis. Energy stored in root structures is often almost completely depleted by spring and the plants very weak. Plants left to go dry in fall retain their energy stores until they are reawakened in spring with much greater vitality than those plants forced to limp through winter's stresses. There is no need to do anything (the collective) you don't want to do, even if it does make perfect sense.

Al

Al, firstly, why do you assume that my intentions were to hurt you? That is not very charitable; I assumed your tone was light and kept to that. - 'I would confiscate her (oxalis) plants' - I only mentioned your mother because she was part of the discussion, which my father certainly wasn't. I did genuinely feel for your mother, though; it appears she only had her plant for five months out of the usual twelve in which one can enjoy Oxalis regnellii aka triangularis. I have personal experience of growing this plant, longer than yours, for obvious reasons, since you only allow them a few months of active life annually. It is not necessary to give this oxalis a resting period, and it will often actively resist this if you try. If it appears to get tired, more likely from not being watered correctly or otherwise cherished (they do like the odd feed or renewed soil), it can be magically revived by trimming the foliage back, repotting and replacing where it grew happily before. People have enjoyed this plant almost continuously for years on end, and according to their own testimonies they often have them much longer than other houseplants. Now there are oxalises with bulbs or other storage organs which do appreciate a resting period (I think particularly those originating in South Africa), but as one of the most beautiful house plants available, Oxalis regnellii does not. So you can send your O. regnelliis to bed early like a naughty child, and I will allow mine to flaunt their glory for many hours longer; this very tolerant plant will put up with both treatments, but I think I know which it prefers :)

For anyone still interested in the above topic of dormancy in Oxalis regnellii, here is an interesting link to a study from Cornell University which in part deals with it :

https://ecommons.cornell.edu/bitstream/handle/1813/33504/ctm25.pdf?seq

I live in Florida and they grow all over with minimal care. They tend to appear under trees. I didn't plant them, they were here. They do go dormant during the Florida winters when there is no rainfall for months. They grow here in sandy soil and spread. Some people consider them a nuisance. I don't.

They are very pretty. Al is correct, they disappear in winter and pop up all over when the rains start. I dug a bunch of corms and potted them to enjoy them on my patio. Those I keep watered and they bloom year round. The wild plants manage on their own and are all blooming now as the rains started last week! Yay!!

Jane

Thanks for that link Marguerite, lot of interesting information. Not only relevant to Oxalis but applicable to other plants as well. On Oxalis this is mentioned:

It is reported that moisture stress, cold temperatures, inadequate nutrition, or other unfavorable growing conditions may induce dormancy in oxalis. However, it is also known that growth may persist for long periods of time (years) if plants are provided with adequate water and nutrition (Dole and Wilkins, 2005; Wilkins, 1985).

Jane and tropicbreezent, I find these particular oxalises fascinating. I was really surprised at how many different varieties there are. I know they are beautiful outside too, but to me they make a perfect house plant.

Marguerite, you are right. When we moved to our house five years ago, I noticed them growing under a large oak tree and was amazed how pretty they were. I never saw them before. They began popping up around the property and I thought this was great. Our gardener, unknown to me would spray them with roundup and kill them. It took a few weeks before I realized and told him to not kill them, I loved them and thought they were so pretty.

The next year I had a party for St. Patricks Day and someone brought me a pot of white Oxalis. They did look like Shamrocks. The leaves were green, not purple. I realized they were the same plant as the purple.

I have both growing in pots on my patio. They are so pretty. The wild Oxalis does not receive any care at all. It dies down in the winter because we have no rain for about 6 months. But pop back up as soon as the rains appear.

Lovely plant.

Jane

I have ordered some different types from All Seeds in the Netherlands, to see what they are like. I ordered Fanny, Irish Mist, Birgit. One they have as Sunny seems to be our Atropurpurea.

Did you recently repot them or move them to a new location? Mine went went very droopy both after repotting and moving to a new location. Another time the entire plant suddenly went droopy for seemingly no reason (no repotting, same location, same light, same watering schedule) for months, and it perked back up after I stopped watering it for a month or so. Now it's thriving again.

The leaves close when it's dark. I occasionally get leaves like yours that are greenish on the tips or where the leaves are broken. Depending on which way your window faces, it might be getting too much light.

Thank you for all the answers!! :)