Western Wetland Flora
Field Office Guide to Plant Species
Rumex maritimus L.
- Family: Smartweed (Polygonaceae)
- Flowering: June-August
- Field Marks: This species differs from others in the genus by the valves of the fruit that have spiny teeth along the edges.
- Habitat: Around ponds, often near or in brackish water.
- Habit: Perennial herb with a thickened rootstock.
- Stems: Spreading or ascending, hollow, branched or unbranched, up to 2 feet long, usually with short hairs.
- Leaves: Alternate, simple, narrowly oblong to lanceolate, up to 6 inches long, rounded or pointed at the tip, tapering to the base, sometimes with wavy or even toothed edges, usually somewhat hairy.
- Flowers: Many in whorls, arranged in large, branched clusters, with several leafy bracts: each flower on a stalk up to 1/6 inch long.
- Sepals: 6, united at the base, greenish.
- Petals: 0.
- Stamens: 6.
- Pistils: Ovary superior.
- Fruits: Achenes surrounded by the enlarged outer 3 sepals (valves), each valve ovate to triangular, green to golden, up to 1/8 inch long, each valve with a wart-like structure and with spiny teeth along the edges.
Previous Species -- Sheep Sorrel (Rumex acetosella)
Return to Species List -- Group 8
Next Species -- Western Dock (Rumex occidentalis)
