Rumex mexicanus |
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Mexican dock, Mexican willow, Mexican willow or dock |
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Habit | Plants perennial, glabrous; with vertical rootstock, occasionally with short, creeping rhizomes. |
Stems | erect or ascending, usually producing axillary shoots below 1st-order inflorescence or at proximal nodes, 30–60(–90) cm. |
Leaf | blades light green to yellowish green, linear-lanceolate, occasionally lanceolate, 6–14 × 1–3.5(–4) cm, usually ca. 5–7 times as long as wide, widest near middle, thin, not coriaceous, base cuneate, margins entire, flat or undulate, apex acute or attenuate. |
Inflorescences | terminal and axillary, terminal usually occupying distal 1/5–1/3 of stem, rather dense or interrupted in proximal 1/2, usually broadly paniculate (branches simple or with few 2d-order branches). |
Pedicels | articulated in proximal 1/3 or almost near base, filiform (thickened distally), 4–7 mm, not more than 2–2.5 times as long as inner tepals, articulation indistinctly swollen. |
Flowers | 10–20 in whorls; inner tepals broadly ovate-triangular, occasionally broadly triangular, 3.5–4.5(–5) × 3.5–4(–5) mm, base truncate or indistinctly cordate, margins entire or indistinctly erose, apex obtuse or subacute; tubercles 3, equal or subequal (much narrower than inner tepals). |
Achenes | brown or dark reddish brown, 2–3 × 1.5–2 mm. |
2n | = 40. |
Rumex mexicanus |
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Phenology | Flowering spring–early summer. |
Habitat | Shores of streams and rivers, wet meadows |
Elevation | 1000 m (3300 ft) |
Distribution |
NM; Mexico
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Discussion | Some authors recognize Rumex mexicanus in the broad sense, including in it many other taxa treated here as separate entities. For consistency, the entities of the R. salicifolius aggregate that are recognized herein are kept separate pending additional taxonomic research. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 5, p. 511. |
Parent taxa | Polygonaceae > subfam. Polygonoideae > Rumex > subg. Rumex > sect. Axillares |
Sibling taxa | |
Name authority | Meisner: in A. P. de Candolle and A. L. P. P. de Candolle, Prodr. 14: 45. (1856) |
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