Description: Slender perennial herbs, erect or ascending, rhizomatous, dioecious or rarely polygamous.
Leaves petiolate, not articulate; nectaries absent; ocrea whitish, membranous, soon lacerate, not ciliate on upper margin.
Flowers in narrow terminal panicles. Perianth segments 6, not winged or keeled or toothed, without callosities, inner 3 larger than outer, enlarged somewhat in fruit (c. as long as the nut). Stamens 6; anthers basifixed. Style trifid, short; stigmas flattened, peltate, fimbriate.
Achene triquetrous, enclosed by the persistent and occasionally adherent perianth. Cosmopolitan weeds.
Distribution and occurrence: World: c. 4 species, temperate Eurasia. Australia: 1 species (naturalized). Often included within Rumex.
Text by K. L. Wilson
Taxon concept:
| One species in NSW: Acetosella vulgaris |
|
