Rumex acetosella
“Sheep sorrel”
POLYGONACEAE
Herbaceous Perennial – Weed
Zone: hardy to zone 4
Native habitat : Europe
Conditions
Soil: any; sandy, impoverished,
Moisture: likes moisture
Light: full sun to part shade
Exposure: general; is tough
Plant size (h x w): 4″ – 8″ x infinity
Other: *often found in gardens, roadsides, waste places, places with poor sandy soil (poor growing conditions)
Aesthetic
Shape/stem: spreading, mound
Leaf: green, small, arrow or spear-shaped, taste sour, basal
Flower: erect flower stem with leaves on it, small, raceme, reddish, not showy, 3-10 flowers off short pedicels (to 2 mm) jointed immediately below the flower; 3 scale-like sepals, 3 petals; male flowers yellow-green, female flowers are red-maroon
Bloom: spring
Other: spreads by seed and rhizome; rhizomes are very branches, elastic and skinny
Treatment (how to…)
Rhizome roots are thin and elastic-like making it difficult to remove the full root. Ideally dig up or hang pull as much of root as possible before goes to seed. Will need to do this a number of times. It is always best if you can get on this weed early. Cultivating the soil with say a stirrup hoe many times over the course of the seasons will eventually starve the plant to death. Can use herbicides effectively if you so choose.
Seed are wind pollinated, therefore making it difficult to control in a garden setting. One plant will produce up to 1,600 seeds a year of which have a high survival rate (buried seeds can lay dormant for up to 80 years). Germination occurs from spring to fall. Rumex acetosella spreads primarily though by rhizomes which will develop very quickly and create dense colonies that can persist for up to 20 years,
Uses
Medicinal: edible in small quantities
Vulnerabilities
Pests and disease: none significant
Deer resistant: no
Other animals:
Interest
Local info: Introduced weed; can out-compete native species
Nature: invasive weed spreads by seed and rhizome
Identification (key features): most leaves are basal, shaped like arrows, green, taste sour; stem leaves alternate, have almost no stalk, reduce in size up the stem
Interesting facts: now naturalized in most of Canada and the USA
Comments: 200 species of Rumex; all of them generally spread; including Rumex acetosa, garden sorrel, and 5 species of Dock (also Rumex)
. west coast island blooms . 