Curly dock
Rumex crispus
Family · Polygonaceae · Irritating
The dock with long leaves whose margin is wavy as if gathered, and spikes that turn rust brown and stand all winter. It is among the most visible herbs on a verge in January.
Roadsides and waste ground · Fields and pasture · Streams and ditches · Town and roadside
Also known asyellow dock, curled dock
How to tell it
The wavy leaf margin is the sign and it never fails. Long narrow leaves, in a rosette and on the stem. A dense spike of green flowers turning rust brown, with three-winged fruits each bearing a raised tubercle.
What it is confused with
Fiddle dock
Rumex pulcher
The lower leaf decides: curly and wavy here, waisted in the middle like a fiddle on the other. Both edible cooked.
What it is for
Young leaves eaten boiled with the water changed, a tradition across Europe. The root was a laxative and a dye. Note: like all docks, it is rich in oxalates, so it is always cooked and not eaten in quantity.
Traditionally used as food. This is not permission to eat it.
With documented traditional uses. Not a therapeutic indication and not a dose.
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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