Keyed Out #087 — Rumex crispus

Question 1

A thin papery tube sheathes the stem immediately above each swollen joint, formed where the leaf's basal appendages have fused right around the shoot.

Accepted Answer

knotweed family

Question 2

Its tiny flowers carry one ring of small dry greenish segments, with no separation at all into a green outer set and a coloured inner set.

Accepted Answer

Polygonaceae

Question 3

It drives a stout forking vertical root with a vivid yellow-orange core, carrying a heavy ground-level {rosette} above it.

Accepted Answer

Rumex

Question 4

Its flowers hang in dense rings tiered one above another up a tall branched flowering stem, rather than crowded into one solid cylindrical head or scattered in small bunches at the leaf joints.

Accepted Answer

Rumex

Question 5

The three papery flaps that wrap each ripening fruit have smooth unbroken edges, without a row of sharp hooked teeth running down either side.

Accepted Answer

Rumex crispus

Question 6

Its basal blades are long and narrow, tapering evenly into the stalk, and their margins are strongly waved and crimped along the whole length rather than lying flat.

Accepted Answer

Rumex crispus