Rumex venosus (Sand Dock) - photos and description
Plant with flowers
Plant
with flowers
Single flower in above photo, flower has two rows of tepals
May
24th plant with fruit beginning to form
May 24th plant with fruit beginning to form
Plant with fruit June 4th in above photo
Plant with fruit June 4th in above photo
Fruit in above photo
Origin: Native.
General: Perennials with a spreading growth habit, stems leafy. Rhizomatous, forming large colonies. Plants glabrous.
Flowers: Flowers are small, grow in loose whorls, and are greenish-pink to red in colour. They are bell-shaped with two rows of tepals, each row having 3 tepals, the inner tepals larger, outer are smaller. Flowers with 6 stamens and 3 stigmas and are described in some field guides as perfect, we thought we observed monoecious and perfect flowers.
Fruit: Fruit showier than the flowers. The calyx enlarges when in fruit, the fruit is three-sided, each side is known as a valve. Fruit greenish-pink to red in colour, the valves orbicular, we measured a valve to 2 cm wide and long.
Leaves: Leaves are alternate, elliptical, entire, waxy to touch. We measured a leaf at 11 cm long and 4 cm wide.
Height: Height listed in Flora of Alberta to 40 cm, I measured plants growing to 32 cm tall.
Habitat: Sandy soil in southwest Saskatchewan.
Abundance: Common.
When and where photographed: Took the above photos May 24th sandy roadside south of Moose Jaw about 70 km southwest of Regina, SK, and June 4th growing in a ditch about 300 km west of our home in Regina, SK.