Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
Rumex pulcher subsp. pulcher
Fiddle Dock
Polygonaceae
Damp weedy depressions and along watercourses. Coastal north from Batemans Bay. Western Slopes. Occasionally elsewhere.
Introduced perennial herb to 0.6 m high, often branched near the base. Leaves with a sheath at the base of the stalk. Basal leaves 4–20 cm long, 30–60 mm wide, bases often cordate, margins often wavy, leaves sometimes fiddle-shaped. Stem leaves alternating up the stems, smaller. Flowers small, with 6 'petals', in 8–20-flowered whorls, the whorls separated by about 1–4 cm, most subtended by a small leaf, often withered at time of fruiting. Flowers mainly Sep.–Jan. Seed cases thick, leathery, often with 3–6 short stiff teeth along each margin, each of the three sides usually with a prominent central protuberance.
Rumex pulcher in PlantNET.
PlantNET description: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Rumex~pulcher (accessed 18 March 2021)
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