Flower:

Long, cylindric, spike-like clusters at the tips of branching stems, made up of numerous whorls of 15 to 30 slender-stalked flowers. The whorls are typically crowded in the upper part of the cluster and may be more widely spaced (interrupted) in the lower. Flowers are less than 1/8 inch long, green to yellowish, 3-sided with 2 series of tepals (petals and similar sepals).

The 3 inner tepals are larger than the outer, narrowly triangular to diamond-shaped with a few long, straight, bristle-like teeth along the outer edge. At the base of each inner tepal is a projection called a grain, lance-linear, about half as wide and more than half as long as the tepal, pitted on the surface, and the grains of all 3 tepals typically about the same size and shape, rarely unequal. Tepals are slightly spreading but close up after pollination. Flower stalks are very slender and may be minutely hairy.

Leaves and stems:

Leaves are all alternate, lance-oblong to lance-linear, 2 to 10 inches long, ½ to 1 inch wide, becoming smaller as they ascend the stem, blunt to pointed at the tip, tapered to straight to heart-shaped at the base, and short-stalked. Edges are toothless and slightly wavy or crinkly, the upper surface hairless, the lower short-hairy especially along the midrib. At the base of the stalk is a papery sheath (ocrea) that wraps around the stem. Stems are erect to ascending to sprawling, short-hairy though may be smooth on the lower stem, and usually many-branched.

Fruit:

A flower produces a single seed, wrapped in the persistent tepals which form a capsule-like structure and mature from green to yellowish, drying to rusty brown. Seeds are 3-sided, egg-shaped with a pointed tip, light brown, and less than 1.5 mm long.

Notes:

Golden Dock, formerly Rumex maritimus var. fueginus, is probably the easiest to identify of all the Rumex species in Minnesota. The relatively low-growing, somewhat sprawling and many-branched growth habit along with the dense, cylindric clusters and bristly tepals are a unique combination.