The docks and sorrels, genus Rumex, are a genus of about 200 species of annual, biennial, and perennial herbs in the buckwheat family, Polygonaceae. Members of the genus are incredibly common perennial herbs with a native almost worldwide distribution, and introduced species growing in the few places where in fact the genus isn't native. Check more information about legit online dispensary shipping worldwide
Some are nuisance weeds (and so are sometimes called dockweed or dock weed), however, many are grown for their edible leaves.[2] Rumex species are used as food plants by the larvae of several Lepidoptera species, and are the only host plants of Lycaena rubidus.
They are erect plants, usually with long taproots. The fleshy to leathery leaves form a basal rosette at the main. The basal leaves may be different from those nearby the inflorescence. They could or might not exactly have stipules. Minor leaf veins occur. The leaf blade margins are entire or crenate.
The usually inconspicuous flowers are carried above the leaves in clusters. The fertile flowers are mostly hermaphrodites, or they might be functionally female or male. The flowers and seeds grow on long clusters at the top of a stalk emerging from the basal rosette; in many species, the flowers are green, however in some (such as for example sheep's sorrel, Rumex acetosella) the flowers and their stems could be brick-red. Each seed is a three-sided achene, often with a round tubercle using one or all three sides.
The genus was first described by Carl Linnaeus in 1753. Within the family Polygonaceae, it is put in the subfamily Polygonoideae. The genus Emex was separated from Rumex by Francisco Campderá in 1819 on the basis that it had been polygamous (i.e. had both bisexual and unisexual flowers on a single plant). However, some species of Rumex subg. Acetosa also have this characteristic, & most other features that are likely to distinguish Emex are found in species of Rumex. Accordingly, in 2015, Schuster et al. demoted Emex to a subgenus of Rumex.[4]
Within the subfamily Polygonoideae, Rumex is positioned in the tribe Rumiceae, together with the two genera Oxyria and Rheum. It really is most closely related to Rheum.
These plants have many uses. Broad-leaved dock (Rumex obtusifolius) used to be called butter dock because its large leaves were used to wrap and conserve butter.
Rumex hymenosepalus has been grown in the Southwestern US as a way to obtain tannin (roots contain up to 25%), for use in leather tanning, while leaves and stems are being used for a mordant-free mustard-colored dye.
These plants are edible. The leaves of all species contain oxalic acid and tannin, and many have astringent and slightly purgative qualities. Some species with particularly high degrees of oxalic acid are called sorrels (including sheep's sorrel, Rumex acetosella, common sorrel, Rumex acetosa, and French sorrel, Rumex scutatus), and some of these are grown as leaf vegetables or garden herbs for his or her acidic taste.[5][6]
In Western Europe, dock leaves certainly are a traditional treatment for the sting of nettles,[7][8] and suitable larger docks (such as broad-leaved dock R. obtusifolius or curled dock R. crispus) often grow conveniently in similar habitats to the normal nettle (Urtica dioica).
In traditional Austrian medicine, R. alpinus leaves and roots have already been used internally for treatment of viral infections.[9]
Rumex nepalensis can be has a selection of medicinal uses in the higher Himalayas, including Sikkim in Northeastern India.
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