Americanized Curly Dock Gardens Away From Poultry, Tobacco, Vegetables

Summary: Americanized curly dock gardens let the European native and toxic, weedy relatives halt reflection and runoff away from poultry, tobacco and vegetables.

closeup of mature Rumex crispus fruits; each of the fruit's three valves (faces) bears a grain or callosity; Bozeman, Gallatin County, southwestern Montana; Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2008, 17:24:32: Matt Lavin, CC BY SA 2.0 Generic, via Flickr

Americanized curly dock gardens adjust ground reflection and surface runoff rates downward by absorbing excess moisture on low-lying depressions, acting as ground cover on problem soils and adapting to soil food webs.

Curly dock, also commonly named curled dock, narrowleaf dock, sour dock and yellow dock, becomes aggressive on cultivated croplands and low-lying pastures and bothersome to ecosystems. The herbaceous perennial in the Polygonaceae family of buckwheat herbs and shrubs conveys poisons through seeds and shoots to poultry and viruses to tobacco and vegetables. It draws beet curly top, cucumber mosaic, rhubarb ring spot and tobacco broad ring spot, mosaic, ring spot and streak viral diseases onto farmlands and gardens.

Weed sanctions exist against Asiatic tearthumb, common sheep sorrel, curly dock, Japanese knotweed, pale smartweed, prostrate knotweed, southern threecornerjack, spiny threecornerjack, Tartary buckwheat and wild buckwheat.

Seedling stages find curly dock with dull green, hairless, oblong, 0.28- to 0.64-inch- (7- to 16.3-millimeter-) long, 0.06- to 0.20-inch- (1.5- to 5.1-millimeter-) wide embryonic leaves.

Curly dock cotyledons give way to first-stage, lance-shaped leaves with ocrea (sheath from basal paired membranes, called stipules, at leaf-to-stem attachments called nodes) and veined undersides. The alternate, lance-shaped, mature, 3.94- to 11.81-inch (10- to 30-centimeter-) long foliage has crinkled or wavy margins and 0.98- to 1.97-inch- (2.5- to 5-centimeter-) long stalks. The upper foliage is smaller than the lower while the brown, papery texture of the 0.39- to 1.97-inch- (1- to 5-centimeter-) long ocrea increases with age.

Americanized curly dock gardens, except where judged offensively weedy by Arkansas and Iowa state and Canadian and Mexican federal legislation, juggle stalks for flowers or leaves.

closeup of immature Rumex crispus fruits; Los Peñasquitos Canyon Preserve, northern San Diego, Southern California; Wednesday, May 13, 2009, 08:50: Stickpen, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Hormones and nutrients from fleshy, 4.92-foot- (1.5-meter-) deep, thick, yellow taproots keep 15.75- to 62.99-inch- (40- to 160-centimeter-) tall curled dock leafing, flowering, fruiting and seeding.

Red-green stems, whose leaf-to-stem attachment points at nodes look large and swollen, launch dissolved hormones and photosynthates for life-sustaining activities throughout above-ground shoots and below-ground roots. Their jointed, 0.16- to 0.32-inch- (4- to 8-millimeter-) long stalks maintain April- through September-blooming, branching, perfect, pyramid-shaped, 10- to 25-whorled, 23.62-inch- (60-centimeter-) long inflorescences called panicles. Each immature green and mature brown to red-green flower 0.12 to 0.19 inches (3 to 5 millimeters) across needs one pistil, three styles and six stamens.

Americanized curly dock gardens offer each flower three sepals in one inner, red, 0.14- to 0.24-inch- (3.5- to 6-millimeter-) long whorl and one green, outer whorl.

Enlarged inner sepals protect dry, nonexplosive, three-sided fruits called achenes, all of which optimally produce over 60,000 red-brown, three-sided seeds for every curly dock's growing season.

The 0.08- to 0.12-inch- (2- to 3-millimeter-) long, 0.06- to 0.08-inch- (1.5- to 2-millimeter-) wide seeds quit being viable in soil after 50 to 80 years. Their germination requires eight to 15 hours of sunlight, maximum 1.18-inch (3-centimeter) depths and temperatures between 68 and 86 degrees Fahrenheit (20 and 30 degrees Celsius). All curly dock stages, described by Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus (May 23, 1707-Jan. 10, 1778) and named Rumex crispus (curly-haired dock), seek moisture but survive drought.

Americanized curly dock gardens thwart ground reflection and surface runoff when the European native transforms courtyards, depressions, roadsides and wastelands away from poultry, tobacco and vegetables.

curly dock (Rumex crispus) life cycle of green immaturity to red brown maturity of flowers and fruits; southeastern Metzger Farm Open Space, Westminster, northeastern Colorado; Thursday, June 19, 2014: Jim Kennedy (nature80020), CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

closeup of mature Rumex crispus fruits; each of the fruit's three valves (faces) bears a grain or callosity; Bozeman, Gallatin County, southwestern Montana; Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2008, 17:24:32: Matt Lavin, CC BY SA 2.0 Generic, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/plant_diversity/5006018713/

closeup of immature Rumex crispus fruits, which mature to red brown color; Los Peñasquitos Canyon Preserve, northern San Diego, Southern California; Wednesday, May 13, 2009, 08:50: Stickpen, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rumexcrispus.jpg

curly dock (Rumex crispus) life cycle of green immaturity to red brown maturity of flowers and fruits; southeastern Metzger Farm Open Space, Westminster, northeastern Colorado; Thursday, June 19, 2014: Jim Kennedy (nature80020), CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/nature80020/14466960612/

For further information:

Dickinson, Richard; and Royer, France. 2014. Weeds of North America. Chicago IL; London, England: The University of Chicago Press.

Linnaeus, Carl. 1753. "9. Rumex crispus." Species Plantarum, vol. I: 335. Holmiae [Stockholm, Sweden]: Laurentii Salvii [Laurentius Salvius].
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/358354

Modzelevich, Martha. "Rumex crispus, Curled Dock, Curly Dock, Yellow Dock, Sour Dock, Narrow Dock, חומעה מסולסלת." Flowers in Israel.
Available @ http://www.flowersinisrael.com/Rumexcrispus_page.htm

"Rumex crispus L." Tropicos® > Name Search.
Available @ http://www.tropicos.org/Name/26000108

Weakley, Alan S.; Ludwig, J. Christopher; and Townsend, John F. 2012. Flora of Virginia. Edited by Bland Crowder. Fort Worth TX: BRIT Press, Botanical Research Institute of Texas.