Rumex crispus, L.

Tutin, T. G., Heywood, V. H., Burges, N. A., Moore, D. M., Valentine, D. H., Walters, S. M. & Webb, D. A., 1964, Flora Europaea - Volume 1. Lycopodiaceae to Platanaceae, Cambridge University Press : 87

36. R. crispus L. , Sp. Pl. 335 (1753) .

Perennial 30-150 cm. Basal leaves 4-5 times as long as wide, narrowly lanceolate, acute, usually cuneate at the base; margins undulate; petiole usually shorter than lamina. Branches of inflorescence erect or ascending, solitary; lower whorls usually remote. Pedicels 2-21 times as long as valves. Valves 3—5 -5(—6-5) mm long and wide, cordate, variable in outline and in development of tubercles, more or less entire. 2n = 60. Sea-shores, river-gravels, and very commonly as a ruderal. Almost throughout Europe. All except Cr Sb, but only as a naturalized alien in Az Is.

The hybrid with R. obtusifolius is the commonest in the genus, and was originally described as a species ( R. pratensis Mert. & Koch ). It is found wherever the parents grow together, and can always be recognized by the different size and outline of the valves on the same plant, some of the flowers falling off before the valves have reached their normal size. The valves are toothed, but often as wide as in R. crispus', the leaves are intermediate, subcuneate to cordate at the base, but always longer and more distinctly undulate than in R. obtusifolius .