Dock & Knotweed Family [Polygonaceae] |
Flowers: |
Fruit: |
status
flower
inner
morph
petals
(3+3)type
type
stem
stem
stem
5th July 2014, Leeds & L/pool canal, Litherland, Merseyside. | Photo: © RWD |
Grows to 60cm high, max 1m in damp places, such as by canals or ponds. |
5th July 2014, Leeds & L/pool canal, Litherland, Merseyside. | Photo: © RWD |
Stems not-straight, but slightly zig-zag (unlike Wood Dock where they are straight). Long branches spread apart at angles >30° to 90° (whereas in Wood Dock they are at between 15° to 25° occasionally to 45°. |
5th July 2014, Leeds & L/pool canal, Litherland, Merseyside. | Photo: © RWD |
With leaves almost to the summit (unlike those of Wood Dock where they stop several tiers short). |
5th July 2014, Leeds & L/pool canal, Litherland, Merseyside. | Photo: © RWD |
Fruits without petals in well-spaced whorls. |
5th July 2014, Leeds & L/pool canal, Litherland, Merseyside. | Photo: © RWD |
Some leaves slightly waisted (unlike those on Wood Dock) and occasionally crisped, as here. |
5th July 2014, Leeds & L/pool canal, Litherland, Merseyside. | Photo: © RWD |
Three un-toothed (entire) oblong to narrowly-ovate tepals each host a large, oval, red, pink or white wart (tubercle). (Wood Dock has but one tepal and only one wart). |
5th July 2014, Leeds & L/pool canal, Litherland, Merseyside. | Photo: © RWD |
5th July 2014, Leeds & L/pool canal, Litherland, Merseyside. | Photo: © RWD |
The fruits are suspended on thin stems (petioles). |
5th July 2014, Leeds & L/pool canal, Litherland, Merseyside. | Photo: © RWD |
Flower stems often reddish at the base, as here. (Stem obviously square with ribs on the flowering spikes, but this is not an identifying feature). |
5th July 2014, Leeds & L/pool canal, Litherland, Merseyside. | Photo: © RWD |
3's |
5th July 2014, Leeds & L/pool canal, Litherland, Merseyside. | Photo: © RWD |
5th July 2014, Leeds & L/pool canal, Litherland, Merseyside. | Photo: © RWD |
Lower leaves larger than upper. Leaves approximately oblong, some slightly waisted, and with a rounded base, |
Not to be semantically confused with : Clustered Bellflower (Campanula glomerata), Clustered Clover (Trifolium glomeratum) [plants with similar names belonging to differing families]. Easily mistaken for : Wood Dock (Rumex sanguineus) but that prefers drier and shadier places such as woods. Other differences are shown in the photo captions.
Hybridizes with the similar : Wood Dock (Rumex sanguineus) to produce Likes to grow in sunny damp places such as by canals, beside ponds, ditches, streams, rivers and wettish meadows, field margins and field tracks. It is also able to tolerate brackish water. Although Docks do indeed have flowers they are seldom seen in real life and seldom mentioned or shown in identification books because the flowers themselves must have no unique identifying features apart from the shape of the tepals; unlike as with the fruits which come afterwards and last a lot longer than the flowers. |
Rumex | conglomeratus | ⇐ Global Aspect ⇒ | Polygonaceae |
Rumex (Docks) |
Dock & Knotweed Family [Polygonaceae] |