Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

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Rumex pulcher subsp. pulcher

Common name

Fiddle Dock

Family

Polygonaceae

Where found

Damp weedy depressions and along watercourses. Coastal north from Batemans Bay. Western Slopes. Occasionally elsewhere.

Notes

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)