Docks and Goosefoots
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Docks and Goosefoots
Both docks and the goosefoot family are associated with cultivated ground and 'waste' areas. Untidy plants for untidy places perhaps! Not the most attractive of flowers but these plants are very important as food for various animals and insects. Indeed, some were once cultivated specifically for human consumption as vegetables.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17Species featured in this book | Scientific Name | Title |
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Common Nettle | Urtica dioica | Common nettle: Do NOT grasp the nettle |
Fat Hen | Chenopodium album | Fat-hen: pernitious weed yet valuable food crop |
Red Goosefoot | Chenopodium rubrum | Red Goosefoot: agricultural irony |
Common Orache | Atriplex patula | Common Orache: |
Sea Purslane | Atriplex portulacoides | Sea Purslane: salt of the earth |
Annual Seablite | Suaeda maritima | Annual Seablite: turning the tide |
Shrubby Seablite | Suaeda vera | Shrubby Sea-blite: the alkali seepweed |
Broad-leaved Dock | Rumex obtusifolius | Broad-leaved Dock: the soothing leaf |
Curled Dock | Rumex crispus | Curled Dock: ironsides |
Wood Dock | Rumex sanguineus | Wood Dock: not bloody likely |
Common Sorrel | Rumex acetosa | Common Sorrel: the vinegar plant |
Sheeps Sorrel | Rumex acetosella | Sheeps Sorrel: the sour weed |
Black Bindweed | Polygonum convolvulus | Black Bindweed: the false bindweed |
Redleg | Persicaria maculosa | Redleg: new name same game |
Pale Persicaria | Persicaria lapathifolia | Pale Persicaria: always read the label |
Knotgrass | Polygonum aviculare | Knotgrass: it is not grass |
Small-leaved Knotgrass | Polygonum arenastrum | Small-leaved Knotgrass: devil in the detail |
This book is made up of the segments listed below. Click the segment title for information about specie within that segment.
Segment | Description |
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Dock Family Polygonaceae |
Docks are probably familiar to us all; big, untidy, leafy plants with seed-like flowers that are green or reddish. The dock family does have a number of species like that but it also includes sorrels and knotgrasses, The latter, although small, clearly show many of the same characteristics that the large species do. |
Goosefoot Family Amaranthaceae |
The goosefoot family contains some of our most common weeds of cultivation, many having once been crops grown as cattle fodder and salad vegetables. They have rather plain, non-descript flowers. I have also included members of the small family called Urticaceae (nettles) here as they share some characteristics. |