Rumex crispus

Curly dock

Family: Polygonaceae · Type: perennial · Not Native

Conservation status: Cal-IPC Yes

Curly dock is a naturalized perennial herb found throughout California in disturbed places at elevations below 2,700 meters. Flowering all year, this plant produces small green to reddish-brown flowers in dense terminal clusters with whorled branches. Growing to 4 to 10 meters tall with an erect stem that often branches above the middle, it develops a vertical fusiform taproot. Its distinctive leaves are 15 to 30 centimeters long with strongly wavy margins, particularly near the base, and lance-linear to lanceolate in shape. The fruit is small, typically 2 to 3 millimeters long and red-brown in color, with three distinctive tubercles on its inner perianth lobes.

Habitat: Abundant. Disturbed places

Bloom period: All year

Elevation: < 2700 m

Bioregions: CA

California counties: San Luis Obispo, San Diego, Riverside, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Orange, Santa Barbara, El Dorado, Inyo, Yolo, Kern, Ventura, Monterey, Mono, Santa Clara, Sonoma, Placer, Fresno, Solano, Humboldt, Imperial, Amador, Yuba, Lake, Calaveras, Sutter, Nevada, Sacramento, Modoc, Alpine, Alameda, Marin, Colusa, Glenn, Mariposa, Napa, San Joaquin, Tehama, Trinity, Butte, Contra Costa, Lassen, Madera, Mendocino, Merced, Plumas, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Cruz, Shasta, Siskiyou, Tulare, Tuolumne, Del Norte, Sierra, Stanislaus

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.