Rumex

Rumex
Patience dock (Rumex patientia)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Eudicots
(unranked):	Core eudicots
Order:	Caryophyllales
Family:	Polygonaceae
Genus:	Rumex L. 1753
Type species
Rumex patientia L.
Species
About 200, see text.
Synonyms
Lapathum Mill. Bucephalophora Pau Sources: ING,[1] UniProt,[2] ITIS,[3] IPNI,[4] GRIN[5]

The docks and sorrels, genus Rumex L., are a genus of about 200 species of annual, biennial and perennial herbs in the buckwheat family Polygonaceae.

Members of this family are very common perennial herbs growing mainly in the Northern Hemisphere, but various species have been introduced almost everywhere.

Some are nuisance weeds (and are sometimes called dockweed or dock weed), but some are grown for their edible leaves.

Rumex species are used as food plants by the larvae of a number of Lepidoptera species - see list of Lepidoptera that feed on Rumex.

Description

They are erect plants, usually with long taproots. The fleshy to leathery leaves form a basal rosette at the root. The basal leaves may be different from those near the inflorescence. They may or may not have stipules. There are minor leaf veins. The leaf blade margins are entire or crenate.

The usually inconspicuous flowers are carried above the leaves in clusters. The fertile flowers are mostly hermaphrodite, or they may be functionally male or female. The flowers and seeds grow on long clusters at the top of a stalk emerging from the basal rosette; in many species the flowers are green, but in some (such as sheep's sorrel, Rumex acetosella) the flowers and their stems may be brick-red. Each seed is a 3-sided achene, often with a round tubercle on one or all three sides.

Uses

These plants have many uses. Broad-leaved dock (Rumex obtusifolius) used to be called butter dock because its large leaves were used to wrap and conserve butter.

Rumex hymenosepalus has been cultivated in the Southwestern US as a source of tannin (roots contain up to 25 percent tannin), for use in leather tanning, while leaves and stems are used for a mordant-free mustard-colored dye.

These plants are edible. The leaves of most species contain oxalic acid and tannin, and many have astringent and slightly purgative qualities. Some species with particularly high levels of oxalic acid are called sorrels (including sheep's sorrel, Rumex acetosella, common sorrel, Rumex acetosa and French sorrel, Rumex scutatus), and some of these are grown as leaf vegetables or garden herbs for their acidic taste.^[6][7]

In Western Europe, dock leaves are a traditional remedy for the sting of nettles,^[8][9] and suitable larger docks (such as broad-leaved dock Rumex obtusifolius or curled dock Rumex crispus) often grow conveniently in similar habitats to the common nettle (Urtica dioica).

In traditional Austrian medicine Rumex alpinus leaves and roots have been used internally for treatment of viral infections.^[10]

Species

Broad-leaved dock leaves (Rumex obtusifolius)

Flowers of Curled dock (Rumex crispus) with remarkable tubercles

See also

• Antipruritic

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Rumex.

Wikispecies has information related to: Rumex

• Rumex acetosella; Missouri Botanical Garden's efloras.org.
• Edibility of Dock: Identification and edible parts of Rumex spp.
• Video:- Dock (Rumex) As Wild Edible Food Part 1 | Frank Cook
• "Rumex". Natural Resources Conservation Service PLANTS Database. USDA. Retrieved 2008-07-02. 
• "Rumex L.". African Plants Database. South African National Biodiversity Institute, the Conservatoire et Jardin botaniques de la Ville de Genève and Tela Botanica. Retrieved 2008-07-02. 
• Linnæi, Caroli (1753). "Trigynia". Species Plantarum, Exhibentes Plantas Rite Cognitas, ad Genera Relatas, cum Differenentiis Specificis, Nominibus Trivialibus, Synonymis Selectis, Locis Natalibus, Secundum System Sexuale Digestas. Retrieved 2008-07-02.