Polygonaceae

Knotweeds, Sorrels and Docks

From Streeter et al., 2016, 'Family Key':

"Flowers small and inconspicuous.

Leaves with fused stipules sheathing the stem; flowers greenish, brown, white or pink; tepals 3-6 in 1-2 whorls"

For the specimen(s) below, hover over image in gallery for description and select for a full screen preview.

ID: 024

Date: 28 May 2024

Locality: The Taxiway, Weston-super-Mare

Location (Lat/Long): 51.344, -2.935

Landscape/habitat: At the side of a disused road/taxiway. Near some industrial units, wasteland.

Identification notes: Leaves looked crinkly/curled at the edges. There were quite a few holes in the leaves where something had eaten it, so it looked a little worse for wear. Possibly the red weevil (see photo).

From Streeter et al. (2016, p.152) description of characters, with my observations:

• 'Basal leaves narrow' and leaf 'edges strongly undulate or crisped' - this is one of the key characters, we can see from the photos that the edges of the leaves are very curled/undulated.

• Habitat of 'waste places, roadsides...' (as shown in photos)

• There are a number of sub-species. ssp. littoreus flowers with a dense inflorescence, and can also be found on coastal shingle, sand-dunes. From this description I may hazard that it could be this subspecies as the inflorescence looks like it would be dense to me, and the location is fairly coastal.

Name: Curled Dock, Rumex crispus

References

Streeter, D., Hart-Davies, C., Hardcastle, A., Cole, F. and Harper, L. (2016) Collins wild flower guide. Revised and updated 2nd edition. edn. London: William Collins.