Marsh Dock - Rumex palustris

Description

Often rather upright with whorls of yellow-green flowers.  Key features for identification are the colour of the mature inflorescence late in the season, or the anther length early in the season and the obtuse tepals. Lower leaves lanceolate, tapered to the base, upper leaves linear.

Identification difficulty
Recording advice

Good photographs of the whole plant in habitat, and details of the flowers required. (RPR)

Habitat

Wet, nutrient-rich mud exposed in summer and autumn, most often in marshes and beside ponds and ditches, but also in clay- and gravel-pits and on damp disturbed ground.

When to see it

In flower during June, July, August and September.

Life History

An annual, biennial or short-lived perennial.

UK Status

Local and occasional in much of Britain.

VC55 Status

Scarce in Leicestershire and Rutland, but may be increasing.

It is listed on the current VC55 Rare Plant Register (Hall and Woodward 2022) as Locally Scarce (i.e. present in 4-10 sites)

Leicestershire & Rutland Map

MAP KEY:

Yellow squares = NBN records (all known data)
Coloured circles = NatureSpot records: 2020+ | 2015-2019 | pre-2015

UK Map

Species profile

Common names
Marsh Dock
Species group:
Wildflowers
Kingdom:
Plantae
Order:
Caryophyllales
Family:
Polygonaceae
Records on NatureSpot:
2
First record:
22/09/2020 (Lewis, Steven)
Last record:
27/06/2023 (Nicholls, David)

Total records by month

% of records within its species group

10km squares with records

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