Rumex brownii Campd.
hooked dock
Glabrous, short-lived perennial; taproot often thick; stems rather slender, branched, spreading to erect, to c. 100 cm long. Petiole < lamina, especially in uppermost lvs. Lamina of basal and cauline lvs (2.5)-6-22 × (0.5)-1-5 cm, linear, lanceolate-oblong, or oblong, generally with 2 rounded lobes at base, sometimes not lobed, sometimes oblique; margin not or somewhat undulate; base truncate to cordate, rarely cuneate; apex acute to long-acuminate. Infl. usually with lvs in the lower axils; fls in distant whorls of 3-12, ⚥, strongly protandrous, extending downwards for ⅔ or more of stem. Pedicels prominently jointed, elongating and deflexed at fruiting. Perianth segments 1.5-2.5 mm long; outer segments lanceolate to ovate, acuminate or aristate, often tinged red, ± spreading at fruiting; inner segments ± broad-ovate, toothed, enlarging at fruiting. Fruiting valves c. 2 × 2 mm (excluding terminal hooked spine), very broadly ovate, strongly reticulate, with c. 5, red, hooked spines 2 mm long on each side; tubercles 0. Nut 2-2.5 mm long, deep glossy brown, acutely angled.
N.: common in northern parts, especially offshore islands, S. to the Bay of Plenty, sometimes fairly common in other lowland parts further S.; S.: fairly common in Marlborough and Nelson, occasional in Canterbury and Otago; K. (very common on Raoul Id).
S.E. Australia 1948
Open, often very dry situations such as cliff tops and coastal headlands, roadsides, waste places, poor pastures, stony riverbeds and on talus deposits.
FL Jan-Dec.
Hooked dock has prominently hooked fr. which enable it to be dispersed easily by passing animals and it has apparently spread rapidly during this century. R. brownii has been confused with, and has been recorded as, the indigenous R. flexuosus in N.Z., but R. flexuosus never has hooked frs.
