Vascular Plants of North Carolina
Account for Fiddle Dock - Rumex pulcher   L.
Members of Polygonaceae:
Members of Rumex with account distribution info or public map:
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Section 6 » Order Polygonales » Family Polygonaceae
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AuthorL.
DistributionA curious distribution in NC: mostly in the inner Coastal Plain, and one population in the lower Piedmont of Moore County; disjunct to Lincoln, Catawba, and Polk counties in the upper Piedmont. A specimen from Avery County proves to be R. obtusifolius.

Native of the Mediterranean region; in N.A. MA-NY-PA-KY-MO-OK, south to FL-TX; also OR-CA-NV-AZ.
AbundanceRare to uncommon in the upper Coastal Plain; rare in the Piedmont. No records yet for elsewhere in the state.
HabitatRoadsides, railroad margins, fields, thickets, poor soil, waste ground, alluvial woods, lawn weed. The Moore record came from DOT dirt piles by NC 24/27.
PhenologyFlowering and fruiting April-August.
IdentificationFiddle Dock is one of only a few docks with toothed fruits, as in R. obtusifolius, but that species is more robust and its inflorescence branches are strongly ascending (vs. spreading in R. pulcher). The spreading inflorescences resemble those of R. conglomeratus, but that species lacks teeth on the fruits.
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State RankSE
Global RankGNR
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