Rumex obtusifolius L.

Bitter dock, broad-leaved dock

Similar species

	Rumex crispus	You are here Rumex obtusifolius
Common Name	curly dock	bitter dock
Plant	12–55″ (30–140 cm) in height, erect but with a few branches.	1–4′ (30–121 cm), on stout stems that don’t branch except just below the flowerheads.
Leaves	A large basal rosette about 1′ (30 cm) around consists of smooth-edged, distinctively wavy (“crisped”) alternate leaves. Each leaf is up to 6″ (15 cm) × 1″ (2.5 cm), oblong-lanceolate in shape, and hairless.	Basal leaves are not arranged in a rosette, and are oval, oblong, or heart-shaped, usually red-veined.. Upper leaves are lanceolate. All leaves have wavy edges, but less so than with curly dock.
Flowers	A panicle of racemes of whorls of flowers appears at the upper 6–18″ (15–45 cm). (In other words, there are a whole pile of tiny, greenish, weird-looking flowers.) Each yellowish or reddish green flower is about ⅛″ (3.2 mm) long. If you look closely, it consists of 3 inner sepals, 3 outer sepals, 3 styles, and an ovary.	On spike-like racemes, greenish, pinkish, or reddish. They appear from June to October.
Fruit	Each flower becomes a heart-shaped, toothless fruit 1/16–⅛″ (2–4 mm) that contains a single white seed that matures to dark brown.	~1/16″ (2–2.7 mm), comprised of triangular “valves" (wings), each with 2-4 spiny teeth on margins. One of the three wings has a seed.
Range/ Zones
Habitats	Disturbed habitats, railroad beds, fallow fields, ocean beaches, and other wetland margins.	Ditches, roadsides, wetlands, meadows, riparian areas, alfalfa and pasture fields (especially with poor drainage), orchards and other disturbed moist areas.

Rumex obtusifolius description by Thomas H. Kent, not updated.

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