Bitter Dock

Rumex obtusifolius

Bitter Dock Blunt-leaved Dock Broad-leaved Dock Common Dock Red-veined Dock Round-leaved Dock Parts used Uses Habitat and cultivation

Bitter dock - a perennial herbaceous plant 2-5 feet tall; bitter dock has an erect, greenish stem, often with red streaks. Its large basal leaves are up to 14 inches long and have blunt or heart-shaped bases; the upper leaves are shorter and more slender. Tiny greenish flowers (June-September) occur in dense clusters on tall stalks at the top of the plant. The small one-seeded fruit is enclosed in three wing like and deeply toothed valves.

To most North Americans today, dock is known as a garden weed, and a particularly tenacious one. There are more than 20 species of dock in the New World, some of them introduced from Europe. Leading members of the group are bitter dock, yellow dock, and patience dock. These vary in size, flower, fruit, and leaf, but their medicinal and culinary uses overlap. In folk usage they are not clearly distinguished. As early as classical antiquity, herbalists knew of the docks' effectiveness as laxatives. Centuries later, in Anglo-Saxon England, physicians used a mixture of the leaves, other herbs, ale, and holy water to cure people believed to have been made ill with "elf sickness" by witchcraft.

By the 17th century, a tea made from bitter dock roots was held to alleviate toothache when taken orally and to cure the itch when used as a wash. The herbalist Nicholas Culpeper stated that bitter dock extract cleared up skin blemishes.

PARTS USED

Root, leaves.

USES

Scientific studies have validated the traditional prescription of bitter dock tea as a laxative. The young leaves of bitter dock may be eaten fresh as a salad or cooked like spinach. The root yields a yellow dye.

HABITAT AND CULTIVATION

Native to Europe, bitter dock now grows wild throughout the United States.