Common name: Swamp Dock
Rumex brownii Campd. APNI* Synonyms: Rumex alcockii Rech.f. APNI*
Description: Perennial 50–80 cm high, stems slender, erect, with a few elongate leafless branches.
Basal leaves variable in shape and size, oblong or lanceolate, usually fiddle-shaped, to 12 cm long, to 4 cm wide, apex acute to subobtuse, base cordate to truncate, petiole about half as long as to equalling lamina; stem leaves few, small, confined to lowest third of stem.
Flower whorls with 5–8 flowers, distant, without subtending leaves.
Fruiting valves 2.5–4 mm long, c. 2 mm wide, with 3–5 hooked teeth on each side and with a hooked tip. Fruiting pedicels thin, c. as long as valves, articulate in lowest third.
Distribution and occurrence: Widespread in the eastern half of NSW, less common in the far west, also on LHI (considered introduced there). Common in SE Australia from Roma in southern Qld to near Hobart in Tas and west to Eyre Peninsula in SA, with scattered records along coastal northern Queensland; probably introduced in the NT (near Alice Springs) and possibly so in SW WA (Rechinger 1984: fig. 13A). Also New Zealand, New Guinea, Timor and Java. Naturalised in Hawaii and Costa Rica, occasionally adventive in Europe (associated with wool shoddy). In herbaceous understorey of woodlands, also often in disturbed habitats such as lawns and pastures, on various soils (loam to sandy)
NSW subdivisions: NC, CC, SC, NT, CT, ST, NWS, CWS, SWS, NWP, SWP, SFWP, *LHI
Other Australian states: Qld Vic. Tas. W.A. S.A. N.T.
Text by K. L. Wilson (1990); edited KL Wilson (May 2018)
Taxon concept: Flora of NSW 1 (1990)
APNI* Provides a link to the Australian Plant Name Index (hosted by the Australian National Botanic Gardens) for comprehensive bibliographic data
***The AVH map option provides a detailed interactive Australia wide distribution map drawn from collections held by all major Australian herbaria participating in the Australian Virtual Herbarium project.
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