This plant is a common “weed” throughout most of North America. When you can identify the plant, post your response as a comment below. Please identify the plant by both its common name and its scientific name. Feel free to add any other information you know and/or your experiences with this plant.
Flower
Mystery plant in bloom
Leaves (center of photo)
Flower bud and fruit body
ANSWER (subsequently added to this post to facilitate the “search” function for these images): Yellow wood sorrel (Oxalis stricta)
I believe this is wood sorrel, oxalis acetosella. When I was a child in southwest Missouri my Mother identified it as “sheep sour” and told me it had a nice sour taste. It indeed had this pleasant sour taste when bitten into. It adds a nice tang to a green salad.
It is a hardy little plant despite it’s delicate appearance. It has invaded my vegetable garden and, despite judicious weeding, is impossible to eradicate. I find the more of it I pull up, the more of it I get to pull up! It is quite a survivor, too, because the tops break off easily to fool you into thinking you’re pulling it out, but the roots stay behind to produce more leaves and flowers again. I never apply any poisons to my garden so wood sorrel and I have just learned to get along!
Yellow woodsorrel: Oxalis stricta.
Yep. This is actually Yellow wood sorrel (Oxalis stricta). Like Margaret, I enjoy nibbling on it and sometimes put it in a fresh greens salad.