Rumex hastatulus
Rumex verticillatus
heartwing dock, heartwing sorrel, wild dock, wild sorrel
swamp dock
solitary or several from base, erect or ascending, branched in distal 2/3 (in inflorescence), 10–40(–45) cm.
erect or, rarely, ascending, simple or producing axillary shoots below 1st-order inflorescence or at proximal nodes, 40–100(–150) cm.
blade obovate-oblong, ovate-lanceolate, oblong-lanceolate, or lanceolate; 2–6(–10) × 0.5–2 cm, base hastate (with spreading lobes), auriculate, or occasionally without evident lobes, margins entire, flat, apex obtuse or subacute.
blades with lateral veins forming angle of 45–60° with midvein, linear-lanceolate or lanceolate, 5–30(–40) × 1–5 cm, usually 5–7(–10) times as long as wide, normally rather thin or at most subcoriaceous, base narrowly cuneate, margins entire, flat or slightly undulate, apex acute or acuminate.
terminal, occupying distal 2/3 of stem, usually lax and interrupted, narrowly paniculate.
terminal and axillary, terminal usually occupying distal 1/3–1/2 of stem, usually lax, interrupted at least in basal 1/2, narrowly paniculate.
articulated in proximal part, filiform, 1.5–2.5(–3) mm, articulation indistinct or slightly swollen.
articulated in proximal part, distinctly thickened distally, 10–17 mm, (2.5–)3–5 times as long as inner tepals, articulation distinctly or slightly swollen.
3–6(–8) in whorls;
inner tepals orbiculate or broadly ovate, 2.5–3.2 × 2.7–3.2 mm, base broadly cordate or rounded, apex obtuse or subacute;
tubercles absent or some inner tepals with slightly swollen central veins.
10–15(–25) in remote whorls;
inner tepals ovate-triangular or ovate-deltoid, 3.5–5 × 2.5–4 mm, longer than wide or, very rarely, as long as wide, base truncate or rounded, margins entire or, rarely, very indistinctly erose, apex acute or subacute (then with broadly triangular-lingulate tip);
tubercles 3, equal or subequal, minutely punctate and/or transversely rugose (wrinkled) in proximal part.
brown or dark brown, 0.9–1.2 × 0.6–0.8 mm.
brown or dark brown, 2.3–3.1 × 1.6–2.2 mm.
= 8 (pistillate plants), 9 (staminate plants), 10 (both sexes).
= 60.
Rumex hastatulus
Rumex verticillatus
Rumex hastatulus is distinct in subg. Acetosa and belongs to the monotypic subsect. Americanae Á. Löve & N. Sarkar. It is represented by at least two chromosome races: populations occurring from North Carolina to Florida and Mississippi normally have 2n = 8 in pistillate plants and 2n = 9 in staminate plants; populations from Louisiana to Texas and Oklahoma predominantly have 2n = 10 in both sexes. Rumex hastatulus has been reported from New Mexico (W. C. Martin and C. R. Hutchins 1980, vol. 1), but those records need confirmation. When fruiting, R. hastatulus has large inner tepals that distinguish it from R. acetosella, with which it is occasionally confused.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Reports of Rumex verticillatus for New Mexico (W. C. Martin and C. R. Hutchins 1980) need confirmation. The species was reported erroneously from Colorado (S. L. O’Kane et al. 1988) as a result of misidentification of R. fueginus (see W. A. Weber and R. C. Wittmann 1992).
I have not seen specimens of Rumex verticillatus from Delaware, Maine, New Hampshire, and New Jersey, but the species probably occurs in those states.
The following two species are closely related to Rumex verticillatus and sometimes treated as subspecies of it.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
IL Wildflowers
KS Wildflowers
LA Plants
MD Biodiversity
MO Plants
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
Go Botany
MI Flora
MN Wildflowers
