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Western Wetland Flora

Field Office Guide to Plant Species

Golden Dock
Rumex maritimus L.

JPG -- Species Photo JPG -- Distribution Map

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.

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U.S. Department of the Interior | U.S. Geological Survey
URL: http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/plants/florawe/species/8/rumemari.htm
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Page Last Modified: Thursday, 03-Aug-2006 11:39:25 EDT
Menlo Park, CA [caww55]