Horned dock
Rumex bucephalophorus
Family · Polygonaceae · Irritating
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The small annual dock of sands and poor fields, turning entirely red as it dries and whose fruits carry curved teeth like horns, which gives the scientific name meaning ox head.
Fields and pasture · Dunes and sand · Roadsides and waste ground · Pine woods
Also known asred dock
How to tell it
A small plant, ten to thirty centimetres, much branched from the base. Elongated narrow stalked leaves. The fruits are the mark: small pieces with three curved stiff teeth on each side, like horns, often bright red. The whole plant turns scarlet at the end of spring.
What it is confused with
Sheep's sorrel
Rumex acetosella
Both are small, sour and of poor soil. Sheep's sorrel has spear-shaped leaves with two ears at the base and smooth fruits; this has simple leaves and fruits with curved horns. Both carry oxalic acid.
What it is for
The leaves taste sour and were chewed by children, like the other sorrels. That sourness is oxalic acid: in quantity it binds calcium and aggravates kidney trouble, so it is a plant to taste one leaf of, not to eat by the handful.
Traditionally used as food. This is not permission to eat it.
Where it occurs
Each square is an area with recorded observations of this plant. The lighter background is the set of areas where any of the entries has been observed, and serves as a reference. Note what this is not: it is not where the plant lives, it is where people record it, so trails and towns always look fuller than the mountains. Data from GBIF.
Sources
Community
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