RUMEX CRISPUS

Family and Genus:- See- POLYGONACEAE/Subgen. RUMEX

Common Names:- None

Homotypic Synonyms:- None

Meaning:- Rumex (L) A name used by the Roman naturalist and philosopher Pliny

for sorrel.

Crispus (L) Curled, wrinkled, with a wavy or curled margin.

General description:- Usually perennial.

Stems:-

1) 30-150(-200) cm.

Leaves:-

1) Basal, 4-5 times as long as wide, narrowly lanceolate, acute, usually cuneate at

the base, margins undulate.

2) Petiole, canaliculate, usually shorter than the lamina.

Flowers:-

1) Inflorescence, branches, erect or ascending; lower whorls, usually remote.

2) Pedicels, 2-2½ times as long as the valves.

3) Valves, 3-6(-8) x 3-5(-7) mm, cordate, variable in outline and in the development

of the tubercles, more or less entire.

Fruit:-

1) Nutlet, obtusely trigonous.

Key features:-

1) Leaf-margin, undulate.

2) Petiole, canaliculate.

3) Tubercles, of the valves developing and hardening early.

Click here for a glossary of terms used

Habitat:- Seasonally wet meadows and ruderal habitats, field margins, roadsides.

0-800 m.

Distribution:- Throughout Greece, but less common in the south. - probably native

to Europe and SW Asia, now almost a cosmopolitan weed. Rare on Crete currently

known for only a few scattered locations in the west.

Flowering time:- May-July.

Photos by:- Fotis Samaritakis