Flora-Fauna

Rumex acetosella L.

First published in Sp. Pl.: 338 (1753).

(Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 1, p. 395, Pl. CXXX, 4; 1966)

• Life-form & habit: Dioecious perennial, with separate male and female plants. Branched rootstock producing both sterile and fertile leaf rosettes. Glabrous, green, glaucous or reddish herb, with erect or ascending stems leafy up to the inflorescence.

• Leaves: Rosette and stem leaves lanceolate or spear-shaped, the latter with triangular or linear basal lobes. Mouterde notes that regional plants have narrow, consistently spear-shaped leaves. Stipular sheaths papery and silvery, tapering to a lanceolate tip that soon splits and tears.

• Inflorescence & flowers: Loose, leafless panicle with rather distant, few-flowered clusters. Male flowers with six similar, equal, blunt tepals and six stamens, often with reddish anthers. In female flowers, the outer tepals lie against the inner valves.

• Fruit: Fruiting valves do not enlarge and, in Mouterde’s regional account, are not tightly attached to the achene.

• Phenology: April–June.

• Habitat & elevation: Siliceous ground, especially sandstone.

• Lebanese distribution: Mayrouba, Beskinta, Dhour Choueir, Afqa, Hadeth, the Cedars of Hadeth, Jourd Hasroun, the Zahle Pass and Khan Sannine.

• Recorded locations: Bqaatouta.

• Native range: Albania, Algeria, Altay, Amur, Austria, Baltic States, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Buryatiya, Canary Is., Cape Provinces, Central European Russia, China North-Central, China South-Central, China Southeast, Chita, Corse, Czechia-Slovakia, Denmark, East Aegean Is., East European Russia, Eswatini, Finland, France, Free State, Føroyar, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Greenland, Hungary, Iceland, Inner Mongolia, Iran, Ireland, Irkutsk, Italy, Kamchatka, Kazakhstan, Khabarovsk, Korea, Krasnoyarsk, Kriti, Kuril Is., KwaZulu-Natal, Lebanon-Syria, Lesotho, Madeira, Magadan, Manchuria, Mongolia, Morocco, Nepal, Netherlands, North Caucasus, North European Russia, Northern Provinces, Northwest European Russia, Norway, NW. Balkan Pen., Poland, Portugal, Primorye, Romania, Sakhalin, Sardegna, Sicilia, South European Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Transcaucasus, Tuva, Türkiye, Ukraine, West Himalaya, West Siberia, Xinjiang, Yakutiya.

• Introduced into: ... Range Science Herbarium, Las Cruces, New Mexico. Polygonaceae Rumex # Rumex acetosella L. First published in Sp. Pl.: 338 (1753) This species is accepted The native range of this species is Temp. Eurasia. It is a perennial and grows primarily in the temperate biome. It is used to treat unspecified medicinal disorders, as a poison and a medicine and for food. ## Distribution * * KBD ### Native to: Albania, Algeria, Altay, Amur, Austria, Baltic States, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Buryatiya, Canary Is., Cape Provinces, Central European Russia, China North-Central, China South-Central, China Southeast, Chita, Corse, Czechia-Slovakia, Denmark, East Aegean Is., East European Russia, Eswatini, Finland, France, Free State, Føroyar, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Greenland, Hungary, Iceland, Inner Mongolia, Iran, Ireland, Irkutsk, Italy, Kamchatka, Kazakhstan, Khabarovsk, Korea, Krasnoyarsk, Kriti, Kuril Is., KwaZulu-Natal, Lebanon-Syria, Lesotho, Madeira, Magadan, Manchuria, Mongolia, Morocco, Nepal, Netherlands, North Caucasus, North European Russia, Northern Provinces, Northwest European Russia, Norway, NW. Balkan Pen., Poland, Portugal, Primorye, Romania, Sakhalin, Sardegna, Sicilia, South European Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Transcaucasus, Tuva, Türkiye, Ukraine, West Himalaya, West Siberia, Xinjiang, Yakutiya.

⚠️ Taxonomic note: Kew recognizes several subspecies within Rumex acetosella. Mouterde includes R. acetoselloides and var. multifidus in his historical species account and separates angiocarpus; Kew now places these within R. acetosella at subspecies rank. The morphology above follows Mouterde’s regional account, while Kew’s distribution covers the species as a whole; no subspecies is assigned to the recorded plant.