Rumex obtusifolius
Rumex sibiricus
bitter dock, broad-leaf dock, broad-leaf or broadleaf or bitter dock, patience a feuilles obtuses
Siberian dock, Siberian or Siberian willow dock
erect, branched distal to middle or occasionally in distal 2/3, often with few flowering stems from rootstock, 60–120(–150) cm.
usually ascending, occasionally erect, usually producing axillary shoots below 1st-order inflorescence, especially at proximal nodes, 15–40(–70) cm.
ocrea deciduous to partially persistent at maturity;
blade oblong to ovate-oblong, sometimes broadly ovate, 20–40 × 10–15 cm, usually less than 4 times as long as wide, base normally distinctly cordate, occasionally rounded, rarely truncate, margins normally entire, flat or undulate, rarely slightly crisped, apex obtuse or subacute.
blades linear-lanceolate or narrowly linear-lanceolate, 6–15 × 1–2(–2.5) mm, usually ca. 6–10 times as long as wide, widest near middle, thin, not coriaceous, base cuneate, margins entire, flat or undulate, apex acute.
terminal, occupying distal 2/3 of stem, usually lax and interrupted, narrowly or broadly paniculate, branches usually forming angle of 30–45° with 1st-order stem.
terminal and axillary, terminal usually occupying distal 1/5–1/3 of stem, rather dense or occasionally interrupted in proximal 1/2, usually broadly paniculate (branches simple or with few 2d-order branches).
articulated in proximal 1/3 or rarely near middle, filiform, 2.5–8.5(–10) mm, articulation distinctly swollen.
articulated in proximal 1/3, filiform (but thickened distally), 1.5–3.5(–4) mm, not more than 2–2.5 times as long as inner tepals, articulation indistinctly swollen.
10–25 in lax whorls;
inner tepals ovate-triangular, deltoid or, occasionally, lingulate, 3–6 × 2–3.5 mm (excluding teeth), ca. 1.5–2 times as long as wide, base truncate, margins usually distinctly dentate, rarely subentire, apex obtuse to subacute, straight, teeth 2–5, normally at each side of margin, short-subulate or triangular-subulate, straight, 0.5–1.8 mm, or shorter than width of inner tepals;
tubercle usually 1, sometimes 3, then 1 distinctly larger, smooth.
10–20(–25) in whorls;
inner tepals ovate or occasionally ovate-lanceolate, 2.5–3(–3.5) × 1.6–2.5 mm, base broadly cuneate or truncate, margins entire or indistinctly erose, apex obtuse or subacute;
tubercles 3, equal or subequal, usually distinctly narrower and much shorter than inner tepals, smooth or weakly rugose.
brown to reddish brown, 2–2.7 × 1.2–1.7 mm.
dark brown, occasionally dark reddish brown, 2–2.5 × 1–1.2 mm.
= 40.
= 20.
Rumex obtusifolius
Rumex sibiricus
Rumex obtusifolius, a member of subsect. Obtusifolii Rechinger f. (K. H. Rechinger 1937), is a polymorphic species represented in Eurasia by three or four rather distinct races often treated by European authors as subspecies or varieties. These taxa differ mostly in inner tepal dentation and geographic distribution. In North America the morphotypes often intergrade. In Eurasia this species is differentiated into predominantly western subsp. obtusifolius [including R. obtusifolius subsp. agrestis (Fries) Danser], eastern subsp. sylvestris (Wallroth) Rechinger f., intermediate central European subsp. transiens (Simonkai) Rechinger f., and montane subsp. subalpinus (Schur) Simonkai. Only subspp. obtusifolius and sylvestris occur in North America; the former seems to be more common. Subspecies obtusifolius differs from subsp. sylvestris in having larger and more prominently dentate inner tepals with one tubercle, or with three distinctly unequal tubercles; in subsp. sylvestris the teeth are usually less than 0.6 mm, developing only near the base of the inner tepals, and the tubercles often almost subequal.
Rumex obtusifolius may be expected elsewhere in the Great Plains region of the United States and Canada.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Rumex hultenii Tzvelev, a species closely related to R. sibiricus (it differs from the latter mostly by inner tepals without tubercles), was reported from Alaska by N. N. Tzvelev (1987b, 1989b). Rumex hultenii is reported to differ from R. utahensis by its narrower leaves, and from R. subarcticus by its smaller inner tepals and erect or ascending (not prostrate) habit, as well as by smaller inner tepals. Records of R. utahensis from Alaska may refer to R. hultenii. I have seen no reliable specimens from North America of R. hultenii and cannot confirm that it occurs in Alaska.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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