Yellow dock
Also Known As: Yellow dock, Curled Dock, Rumex crispus, Sour Dock, Narrow Dock, Narrow-leaved dock
Curled Dock (Rumex crispus), also known as Curly Dock, Yellow Dock, Sour Dock, Narrow Dock, sometimes as "narrow-leaved dock" (which properly refers to a variant of Sorrel), and ambiguously as "garden patience", is a perennial flowering plant in the family Polygonaceae, native to Europe and Western Asia.
The mature plant is a reddish brown colour, and produces a stalk that grows to about 1 m high. It has smooth leaves shooting off from a large basal rosette, with distinctive waved or curled edges. On the stalk flowers and seeds are produced in clusters on branched stems, with the largest cluster being found at the apex. The seeds are shiny, brown and encased in the calyx of the flower that produced them. This casing enables the seeds to float on water and get caught in wool and animal fur, and this helps the seeds to spread to new locations. The root-structure is a large, yellow, forking taproot.
Curled Dock grows in roadsides, all types of fields, and low-maintenance crops. It prefers rich, moist and heavy soils.
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