Rumex maritimus (Golden Dock) - photos and description

 

Rumex maritimus

Rumex maritimus
Plants on this page in fruit (done flowering)

Rumex maritimus
Valves in threes, tubercles borne in the centre of each valve

Rumex maritimus
Lower stem leaf in above photo 

Rumex maritimus
Upper stem leaf in above photo

General: A much-branched annual with a decumbent grow habit. Stems have fine hairs.

Flowers: Inflorescence in dense spikes with leafy bracts for entire length of stem, flowers small, greenish.

Leaves: Leaves glabrous, alternate, wavy margined. Lowest stem leaves are oblong, the blade of the lower stem leaf highlighted in photo above was 4 cm long by 15 mm wide. Leaves further up the stem are longer, we measured an upper stem leaf at 85 mm long by 16 mm wide.

Height: Height listed in Budd's Flora to 60 cm tall, we measured plants to 26 cm tall.

Habitat: Saline shores and disturbed soil.

Abundance: Common, ranked as an S5 by the Saskatchewan Conservation Data Centre.

Origin: Native.

How to identify this species of Rumex: Annual, valves with long bristles (Taxonomic Reminder for Recognizing Saskatchewan Plants).

When and where photographed: Photos taken August 22nd, disturbed soil in park, boreal forest, about 400 km northeast of our home in Regina, SK.