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Curled Dock

Curled Dock

Rumex crispus

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How common: Common

Curled Dock is a tall, sturdy perennial with distinctly wavy-edged leaves. It is a familiar weed of nutrient‑rich, disturbed places such as fields, roadsides, waste ground and shores. Stems often show a reddish tint, and the plant carries tall, narrow, almost leafless flower clusters that turn rusty brown with age.

Did you know?

  • The strongly wavy leaf edge gives Curled Dock its name.
  • Its seed clusters often persist as brown spikes into winter and can spread well by water.

About the species

Identification

40–120 cm tall, upright and robust, usually hairless, often reddish‑tinged. Leaves long and narrow (about 4–5 times longer than wide) with clearly wavy edges; lower leaves with long stalks, upper leaves nearly stalkless. Flower clusters tall, narrow and crowded, mostly without leaves; tiny greenish flowers. Later, dense brown clusters form; each small seed is enclosed by three papery triangles, each usually with a pale bump. Compared with Broad‑leaved Dock, Curled Dock has longer, narrower, more wavy leaves and a more open top cluster. Flowers in Finland in late summer, mainly July–August.

Plant group

Herbaceous plants

Habitat

shore

Flowering

Jul–Aug

About the habitat

Grows on nutrient-rich, disturbed ground: fields, pastures, roadsides, waste tips, and seashores. It favors rich, often nitrogen‑loaded soils. Mainly along the coast, scattered inland.

Sources

Photo: Olivier Pichard, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rumex crispus vallee-de-grace-amiens 80 12062007 3.jpg

Text: Pinkka: Verso- ja leviäintunnistus - Kaikki leviäimet, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.38266

Text: Pinkka: Verso- ja leviäintunnistus - Kaikki versot, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.38266

Text: Pinkka: A Pohjolan kasveja - Rabelera-Ruta, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.38266

Text: Wikipedia (Finnish), CC BY-SA 4.0 https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poimuhierakka

See also