Rumex verticillatus
Rumex sibiricus
swamp dock
Siberian dock, Siberian or Siberian willow dock
erect or, rarely, ascending, simple or producing axillary shoots below 1st-order inflorescence or at proximal nodes, 40–100(–150) cm.
usually ascending, occasionally erect, usually producing axillary shoots below 1st-order inflorescence, especially at proximal nodes, 15–40(–70) cm.
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.
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 and axillary, terminal usually occupying distal 1/3–1/2 of stem, usually lax, interrupted at least in basal 1/2, narrowly paniculate.
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 part, distinctly thickened distally, 10–17 mm, (2.5–)3–5 times as long as inner tepals, articulation distinctly or slightly 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.
10–15(–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.
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 or dark brown, 2.3–3.1 × 1.6–2.2 mm.
dark brown, occasionally dark reddish brown, 2–2.5 × 1–1.2 mm.
= 60.
= 20.
Rumex verticillatus
Rumex sibiricus
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.)
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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