Rumex hydrolapathum – Water Dock

Water dock is a stately, native perennial reaching a height of almost 2m and with root leaves up to 1m long.

Habitat Information
Water dock is usually found as an emergent plant at the margins of slow- flowing rivers and streams and by lakes, ponds and ditches.
It can also colonize bare mud in marshes and fens but tends to be displaced as the vegetation closes in.

Two insects are particularly closely associated with Water dock, the green dock beetle Gastrophysa viridula and a red weevil Apion hydrolapathi. In the past a third species could have been added to this list, the large copper butterfly Lycaena dispar whose sole larval food plant was the water dock. Unfortunately with the drainage of the fens this spectacular species went extinct. Several attempts have been made to reintroduce it but to date they have all been unsuccessful.

Growing Information
Seed can be sown any time of the year.