Login
Login

Rumex

{{Short description|Genus of plants}}

{{Automatic taxobox

|image = Rumex X patientia Sturm55.jpg

|image_caption = Patience dock
(Rumex patientia)

|taxon = Rumex

|authority = L. 1753

|type_species = Rumex patientia

|type_species_authority = L.

|subdivision_ranks = Species

|subdivision = About 200, see text

|synonyms_ref =

|synonyms =

{{Genus list

|Acetosa|Tourn. ex Mill.

|Acetosella|(Meisn.) Fourr.

|Analiton|Raf.

|Atecosa|Raf.

|Bucephalophora|Pau

|Centopodium|Burch.

|Emex|Neck. ex Campd.

|Eutralia|Raf.

|Lapathon|Raf.

|Lapathum|Mill.

|Menophyla|Raf.

|Nemolapathum|Ehrh.

|Oxylapathon|St.-Lag.

|Rhodoptera|Raf.

|Steinmannia|Opiz

|Tomaris|Raf.

|Vibo|Medik.

|Vibones|Raf.

}}

|}}

The docks and sorrels, genus Rumex, are a genus of about 200 species of annual, biennial, and perennial herbs in the buckwheat family, Polygonaceae.

Members of this genus are very common perennial herbs with a native almost worldwide distribution, and introduced species growing in the few places where the genus is not native.

Some are nuisance weeds (and are sometimes called dockweed or dock weed), but some are grown for their edible leaves.{{cite book |last=Martin |first=Alexander C. |title=Weeds |year=1972 |publisher=Golden Press |location=New York |isbn=0-307-24353-2 |page=[https://archive.org/details/weeds00mart/page/38 38] |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/weeds00mart/page/38}} Rumex species are used as food plants by the larvae of a number of Lepidoptera species, and are the only host plants of Lycaena dispar and Lycaena rubidus.{{Cite journal|last1=Warren|first1=Andres|last2=Harrera|first2=Alfonso|date=15 March 2005|title=Butterflies of Oregon Their Taxonomy, Distribution, and Biology|url=https://dspace.library.colostate.edu/bitstream/handle/10217/81121/BSPMGILL_LepidopteraofNorthAmerica6.pdf?sequence=1|journal=Lepidoptera of North America|volume=6}}

Description

They are erect plants, usually with long taproots. The fleshy to leathery leaves form a basal rosette at the root. The basal leaves may be different from those near the inflorescence. They may or may not have stipules. Minor leaf veins occur. The leaf blade margins are entire or crenate.

The usually inconspicuous flowers are carried above the leaves in clusters. The fertile flowers are mostly hermaphrodites, or they may be functionally male or female. The flowers and seeds grow on long clusters at the top of a stalk emerging from the basal rosette; in many species, the flowers are green, but in some (such as sheep's sorrel, Rumex acetosella) the flowers and their stems may be brick-red. Each seed is a three-sided achene, often with a round tubercle on one or all three sides.

Taxonomy

The genus was first described by Carl Linnaeus in 1753. Within the family Polygonaceae, it is placed in the subfamily Polygonoideae. The genus Emex was separated from Rumex by Francisco Campderá in 1819 on the basis that it was polygamous (i.e. had both bisexual and unisexual flowers on the same plant). However, some species of Rumex subg. Acetosa also have this characteristic, and most other features that are supposed to distinguish Emex are found in species of Rumex. Accordingly, in 2015, Schuster et al. demoted Emex to a subgenus of Rumex.{{Citation |mode=cs1|last1=Schuster |first1=Tanja M. |last2=Reveal |first2=James L. |last3=Bayly |first3=Michael J. |last4=Kron |first4=Kathleen A. |date=2015 |title=An updated molecular phylogeny of Polygonoideae (Polygonaceae): Relationships of Oxygonum, Pteroxygonum, and Rumex, and a new circumscription of Koenigia |journal=Taxon |volume=64 |issue=6 |pages=1188–1208 |doi=10.12705/646.5 |name-list-style=amp}}

Within the subfamily Polygonoideae, Rumex is placed in the tribe Rumiceae, along with the two genera Oxyria and Rheum. It is most closely related to Rheum, which includes Rhubarb.

{{clade

|label1=Rumiceae

|1={{clade

|1=Oxyria

|2={{clade

|1=Rumex

|2=Rheum

}}

}}

}}

=Species=

File:Rumex nervosus.jpg

{{As of|2022|June}}, Plants of the World Online accepted the following species. A large number of hybrids are also recorded.{{cite web |title=Rumex L. |work=Plants of the World Online |publisher=Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew|url=https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:328551-2 |access-date=2022-06-22}}

{{div col|colwidth=25em}}

Image:RumexCrispusValven.jpg

Image:Rumex-obtusifolius-foliage.JPG

{{div col end}}

Uses

These plants have many uses. Broad-leaved dock (Rumex obtusifolius) used to be called butter dock because its large leaves were used to wrap and conserve butter.

Rumex hymenosepalus has been cultivated in the Southwestern US as a source of tannin (roots contain up to 25%), for use in leather tanning, while leaves and stems are used for a mordant-free mustard-colored dye.

These plants are edible. The leaves of most species contain oxalic acid and tannin, and many have astringent and slightly purgative qualities. Some species with particularly high levels of oxalic acid are called sorrels (including sheep's sorrel Rumex acetosella, common sorrel Rumex acetosa, and French sorrel Rumex scutatus), and some of these are grown as leaf vegetables or garden herbs for their acidic taste.{{cite web |url=http://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/s/sorcom64.html |title=Sorrel, Garden or Common [Rumex acetosa] |website=Botanical.com}}{{cite journal | journal = Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine | year = 2008 | volume = 4 | issue = 1 | doi = 10.1186/1746-4269-4-4 |pmc=2275233 | title = Archival data on wild food plants used in Poland in 1948 | first = Łukasz | last = Łuczaj | page = 4 | pmid = 18218132 | doi-access = free }}

In the United Kingdom, Rumex obtusifolius is often found growing near stinging nettles, owing to both species favouring a similar environment, and there is a widely held belief that the underside of the dock leaf, squeezed to extract a little juice, can be rubbed on the skin to counteract the itching caused by brushing against a nettle plant.{{cite web |work=Ethnomedica |url=http://www.rbgkew.org.uk/ethnomedica/reports/dock.html |title=Recorded uses of' dock (Rumex sp.) |access-date=2008-04-15 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081120040109/http://www.rbgkew.org.uk/ethnomedica/reports/dock.html |archive-date=2008-11-20}} {{verify source |date=September 2019}} This home remedy is not supported by any science, although it is possible that the act of rubbing may act as a distracting counterstimulation, or that belief in the dock's effect may provide a placebo effect.{{cite news |last1=Hopcroft |first1=Keith |title=Home remedies: dock leaves for nettle stings |url=https://www.thetimes.com/article/home-remedies-dock-leaves-for-nettle-stings-gk075bw6b3c |access-date=29 August 2020 |date=10 September 2005 |language=en}}

In traditional Austrian medicine, R. alpinus leaves and roots have been used internally for treatment of viral infections.{{cite journal |display-authors=4 | last1 = Vogl | first1 = S | last2 = Picker | first2 = P | last3 = Mihaly-Bison | first3 = J | last4 = Fakhrudin | first4 = N | last5 = Atanasov | first5 = AG | last6 = Heiss | first6 = EH | last7 = Wawrosch | first7 = C | last8 = Reznicek | first8 = G | last9 = Dirsch | first9 = VM | last10 = Saukel | first10 = J | last11 = Kopp | first11 = B | year = 2013 | title = Ethnopharmacological in vitro studieson Austria's folk medicine-An unexplored lore in vitro anti-inflammatory activities of 71 Austrian traditional herbal drugs | journal = J Ethnopharmacol | volume = 149 | issue = 3| pages = 750–71 | doi = 10.1016/j.jep.2013.06.007 | pmid = 23770053 | pmc=3791396}}

Rumex nepalensis is also has a variety of medicinal uses in the Greater Himalayas, including Sikkim in Northeastern India.{{cite journal |last1=O'Neill |first1=Alexander R. |last2=Badola |first2=Hemant K. |last3=Dhyani |first3=Pitamber P. |last4=Rana |first4=Santosh K. |date=29 March 2017 |title=Integrating ethnobiological knowledge into biodiversity conservation in the Eastern Himalayas |url= |journal=Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine |volume=13 |issue=21 |page=21 |doi=10.1186/s13002-017-0148-9 |pmc=5372287 |pmid=28356115 |doi-access=free }}

Fossil record

Several fossil fruits of Rumex sp. have been described from middle Miocene strata of the Fasterholt area near Silkeborg in Central Jutland, Denmark.{{cite journal |title=Angiosperm Fruits and Seeds from the Middle Miocene of Jutland (Denmark) |first=Else Marie |last=Friis |author-link=Else Marie Friis |journal=The Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters |volume=24 |issue=3 |year=1985}}

{{clear}} One fossil fruit of a Rumex species has been extracted from a borehole sample of the Middle Miocene fresh water deposits in Nowy Sacz Basin, West Carpathians, Poland. This fossil fruit is similar to the fruits of the extant species Rumex maritimus and Rumex ucranicus which both have fossil records from the Pliocene and Pleistocene of Europe.Macroscopic plant remains from the freshwater Miocene of the Nowy Sącz Basin (West Carpathians, Poland) by Maria Łańcucka-Środoniowa, Acta Palaeobotanica 1979 20 (1): 3-117.

Nutrition

{{nutritional value | name=Dock, raw (Rumex spp.)

| kJ=92

| protein=2 g

| fat=0.7 g

| carbs=3.2 g

| fiber=2.9 g

| calcium_mg=44

| iron_mg=2.4

| magnesium_mg=103

| phosphorus_mg=63

| potassium_mg=390

| zinc_mg=0.2

| manganese_mg=0.349

| vitC_mg=48

| thiamin_mg=0.04

| riboflavin_mg=0.1

| niacin_mg=0.5

| vitB6_mg=0.122

| folate_ug=13

| vitA_ug=200

| source_usda = 1

| note=[https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/170076/nutrients Link to USDA Database entry]

}}

Nutrition information is shown in the infobox on the right.

See also

References

{{Reflist|40em}}

External links

{{Commons category|Rumex|
Rumex}}

{{Wikispecies}}

  • [http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=242414256 Rumex acetosella]; Missouri Botanical Garden's efloras.org.
  • [http://www.northernbushcraft.com/plants/dock/notes.htm Edibility of Dock]: Identification and edible parts of Rumex spp.
  • [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dib1zO5YNbM&feature=autoplay&list=ULUuBIoHflW38&index=8&playnext=1 Video:- Dock (Rumex) As Wild Edible Food Part 1 | Frank Cook]
  • {{cite web| url= http://www.ville-ge.ch/musinfo/bd/cjb/africa/resultat.php?efNom=Rumex&efFamille=&projet%5B%5D=FSA&projet%5B%5D=FTA&projet%5B%5D=FNA&projet%5B%5D=BDM&langue=an&pbRecherche=Search| title= Rumex | access-date= 2018-07-05| work= African Plants Database| publisher= Conservatoire et Jardin botaniques & South African National Biodiversity Institute}}
  • {{cite book|last=Linnæi|first=Caroli|author-link=Carl Linnaeus|title=Species Plantarum, Exhibentes Plantas Rite Cognitas, ad Genera Relatas, cum Differenentiis Specificis, Nominibus Trivialibus, Synonymis Selectis, Locis Natalibus, Secundum System Sexuale Digestas|url=http://www.botanicus.org/title/b12069590|access-date=2008-07-02|year = 1753 | chapter = Trigynia | chapter-url = http://www.botanicus.org/page/358352}}

{{Taxonbar|from1=Q157264|from2=Q15926219|from3=Q32252794|from4=Q32254567|from5=Q1632348|from6=Q15928071}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Polygonaceae genera

Category:Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus

Category:Taxa described in 1753