POLTGONACEAE (BUCKWHEAT FAMILY) 



95 



Time of bloom: May to July. 



Seed-time: June to August. 



Range : Eastern Canada to Vermont, New York, and Pennsylvania : 



locally south and west. 

 Habitat: Gardens, fields, roadsides, and waste places. 



Usually an escape from gardens 

 where it has been cultivated for 

 "greens," though there are much 

 better pot herbs which are not so 

 unruly. Stems eighteen inches to 

 three feet tall, erect, simple, smooth, 

 slightly grooved. Leaves two to 

 five inches long, arrow-shaped, the 

 auricles at base not spreading ; basal 

 leaves on long and slender petioles, 

 those on the stems nearly sessile. 

 Flowers dioecious, the racemes erect, 

 and crowded, or interrupted. Calyx 

 green, the valves winged in fruit, 

 rounded at apex, heart-shaped at base. 

 Achenes dark reddish brown, pointed, 

 three-angled, smooth and shining. 

 (Fig. 55.) 



Means of control 



Frequent and close cutting through- 

 out the growing season will prevent 

 seed development and starve the 

 roots tocks. Small areas should be 

 grubbed out and destroyed. 



FIELD SORREL 



Rumex Acetosella, L. 



Other English names: Horse Sorrel, Sheep Sorrel, Redtop Sorrel, 

 Sourweed, Sourgrass. 



Introduced. Perennial. Propagates by seeds and by rootstocks. 



Time of bloom: May to September. 



Seed-lime: June to November. 



Range: All parts of North America except the extreme North. 



Habitat: Rather dry, sandy soil; fields, meadows, pastures, road- 

 sides, and waste places. 



FIG. 55. Tall Sorrel 

 (Rumex Acetosa). X $. 



