Mary Sue, I have not noticed this with O brasiliensis, which in my experience reproduces vegetatively very rapidly. A number of other species that I grow, both from S Africa and the Americas, have a tendency to produce large fleshy contractile roots, which can resemble tubers, below the corm. Examples are the winter growing O livida from S Africa and the summer growing O lasiandra form the Americas. If removed from soil and left attached to the bulb the fleshy contractile root withers leaving only the corm. I do not know whether the root has the potential to regenerate if detached from the corm and retained in a growing medium. For most Oxalis it is not an issue due to the tendency to produce abundant daughter corms! Getting back to O brasiliensis, in my experience it can be induced to grow at virtually any season given adequate warmth and water. Its precise origin is rather uncertain but is presumably S American, there being doubt concerning the original publication details, which are treated skeptically in the Oxalis checklist produced by the Geraniaceae Group (ISBN 1-899742-43-3) Oxalis bowei, which you mention, is a far superior plant, a lovely winter grower from S Africa. The flower stems always remind me of the unrelated, but superficially similar, Primula obconica, but the Oxalis is advantageous in that it does not possess the allergenic properties of the latter! regards Robin