Rumex pulcher

Fiddle dock

Family: Polygonaceae · Type: perennial · Not Native

Fiddle dock is a naturalized perennial herb found in California in disturbed places, meadows, and various moisture habitats at elevations generally below 1,500 meters. Flowering from May to September, this plant produces small flowers in open, interrupted whorls with spreading branches. Growing with erect to arching stems 20 to 60 centimeters tall that are slender and branched, it develops a vertical fusiform taproot. Its lance-oblong to ovate-oblong leaves measure 4 to 10 centimeters long with entire or slightly wavy margins, featuring a base that is cordate, rounded, or truncate. The fruit is dark red-brown to nearly black, with distinctive inner perianth lobes that have triangular teeth and typically three warty tubercles.

Habitat: Disturbed places, meadows, moist or dry habitats

Bloom period: May-Sep

Elevation: generally < 1500 m

Bioregions: CA

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

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