Rumex acetosa L.
sorrel
Slightly puberulent, dioecious perennial; rootstock ± woody; stems to c. 1 m tall, reddish towards base. Lower lvs with long slender petioles several times > lamina; uppermost lvs shortly petiolate or subsessile, somewhat amplexicaul. Lamina 3.5-12 × 1-3 cm, narrowly oblong to ± lanceolate, pleasantly sour to taste, entire except for 2, ± downwards-directed, basal lobes to c. 1.3 cm long; apex obtuse. Infl. to c. 30 cm long, reddish, with several simple branches, leafless. Fls in fascicles; pedicels slender. Perianth of ♂ fls 1.5-2 mm long. Outer perianth of ♀ fls c. 0.5 mm long, soon strongly reflexed; valves orbicular-cordate, winged, entire and lacking tubercles, enlarging to 2.8-3.5-(4) mm at fruiting, ± rose-red. Nut c. 2-(2.3) mm long, dark shining brown, acutely angled.
N.: only known with certainty from the Maungatungaroa Stream (Manawatu); S.: Christchurch, Dunedin, Pourakino Valley (Southland); St.: Halfmoon Bay.
Temperate Eurasia 1855
Usually amongst grass on moist roadsides, very local.
FL Nov-Jan.
Sorrel has remained surprisingly uncommon although it was recorded wild long ago. It was probably introduced deliberately because it is sometimes cultivated for its pleasantly acidic, sour-tasting lvs. Amongst the Rumex spp. wild in N.Z. this feature of the lvs is only found in sorrel and the 2 sheep's sorrels and to some extent in R. crispus. The related R. scutatus L., French sorrel, is now commonly cultivated in N.Z. and is distinguished from R. acetosa by the wider shield-shaped basal lvs which are nearly as broad as long, and the obviously petiolate rather than amplexicaul upper lvs.
