Ontario
Weeds: Curled dock
Table of Contents
- Name
- Other Names
- Family
- General Description
- Stems and Roots
- Leaves
- Flowers and Fruit
- Habitat
- Similar Species
- Related Links
Name: Curled dock, Rumex
crispus L.,
Other Names: patience crépue, Curly
dock, Narrow-leaved dock, Sour dock, Yellow dock, patience, rumex
crépu
Family: Buckwheat Or Smartweed Family (Polygonaceae)
General Description: Perennial, spreading
only by seed.
Photos and Pictures
Curled dock. A. Seedling in cotyledon stage. B. Seedling in 4th
ltue-leaf stage. C. Rosette. D. Base of mature plant. E. Inflorescence.
F. Single, 3-winged "fruit".
Stems & Roots: Stems erect, 1 m
(40 in.) or taller, from a thick, yellowish, deeply penetrating, simple
or branching taproot
Leaves: Leaf shape variable: cotyledons
(first 2 seed leaves) very narrow, dull green and mealy-surfaced;
first true leaves roundish in outline; rosette leaves long, 10-30cm
(4-12in.) or longer, narrow, with rounded or tapered bases, very wavy-margined,
curled or "crisped," sour-tasting; stem leaves alternate
(1 per node), similar but smaller upwards, base of each leaf-stalk
flattened, expanded and somewhat encircling the stem at the node,
and with a prominent ocrea (membranous sheath) up to 5 cm (2in.) long
which becomes brown and papery with age; the lower stem leaves dying
as the plant matures.
Flowers & Fruit: Flowers small,
greenish clustered in whorls around the branches of the terminal inflorescence,
becoming at maturity a thick branched mass of light brown to dark
brown "fruits"; each fruit with 3 tiny sepals and 3 large,
wing-like, smooth-margined, papery sepals or "valves", with
1 prominent, egg-shaped, corky bump (tubercle or "grain")
on the back of each of the 3 large sepals, and enclosing a small,
shiny, reddish-brown fruit ("seed") which is triangular
in cross-section, pointed at both ends and about 2mm (1/12in.) long.
Flowers from June to July.
Habitat: Curled dock is a common weed
of moist situations such as meadows, low pastures, riversides, roadsides,
depressions in cultivated fields, and occasionally on sandy uplands
throughout Ontario.
Similar Species: It is distinguished from
similar plants by its long, narrow leaves with curled and wavy margins,
the base of the leaf blades being rounded or narrowed towards the
leafstalks, and the 3 wing-like sepals (valves) of the fruit with
relatively smooth margins (no teeth) and each one bearing an enlarged
corky tubercle.
Related Links
... on general Weed
topics
... on weed identification, order OMAFRA Publication 505: Ontario Weeds
... on weed control, order OMAFRA Publication 75: Guide To Weed Control
| Back
to the Ontario Weeds Gallery | Top of Page
|
