Description :

• Perennial or annual herbs or occasionally shrubby
• Leaves often cordate or hastate, basal leaves differing from those near inflorescence; ocrea membranous
• Inflorescence a leafy or leafless, terminal thyrse
• Flowers bisexual or unisexual, in whorls, with articulated pedicels, ebracteate
• Perianth : segments usually 6, in 2 whorls of 3, the inner enlarged in fruit
• Stamens 6, arising at base of perianth
• Ovary 3-angled, enclosed within persistent perianth; styles 3 and spreading or reflexed; stigmas fimbriate or penicillate
• Achene usually enclosed within the stiff, dry, persistent perianth parts
• x = 7, 10 (5, 8, 9) (high polyploidy, B-chromosomes)

Nomenclature:

• Rumex L.
  • Linnaeus: 333 (1753)
  • Wright: 472 (1912)
  • Rechinger: 3 (1954)
  • Rechinger: 82 (1964)
  • Rechinger: 75-122 (1984)
  • Brandbyge: 541 (1993)

Distribution & Notes:

• Global : Species over 200, cosmopolitan, mainly in temperate regions
• Southern Africa : Species ± 18, including several introduced species; widespread