Rumex L.
Perennial or sometimes annual herbs, occasionally climbing, rarely shrubby; roots often thick. Lvs radical or cauline, very variable, mostly longer than wide, commonly bullate and undulate, sometimes hastate; ochreae ± tubular. Fls in simple or branched racemes or spikes, often strongly protandrous, often whorled, green, often turning reddish later, mostly ⚥, sometimes unisexual (plants monoecious or dioecious). Pedicels jointed, usually deflexed at fruiting. Perianth segments 6, ± free; outer 3 remaining small and thin and often reflexing; inner 3 (fr. valves) enlarging in fr., often becoming hard, prominently veined, not keeled, sometimes with marginal teeth, sometimes with dorsal tubercles, these forming enlarged corky areas on the midrib. Stamens 6, in 2 whorls. Styles 3, very short; stigmas usually strongly lobed and mostly penicillate. Fr. a trigonous nut, with surrounding perianth segments sometimes spiny.
Key
150-200 spp., temperate regions. Native spp. 2, naturalised 11.
This genus contains several important agricultural and horticultural weeds. For N.Z., the diagnostically important fr. valve characters are well illustrated by Healy, A. J., Identification of Weeds and Clovers ed. 3 (1982). A revision of the genus in Australia treats most of the naturalised spp. in N.Z. and assigns them to subgenera and sections (Rechinger, K. H., Nuytsia 5(1): 75-117 (1984).
