Scientific name: Rumex acetosella L.
Common name: Sheep's Sorrel
Description
Habit: A hairless perennial, to 30 cm high.
Stems: Erect, sparingly branched, with a creeping rhizome.
Leaves: Alternate, undivided, to 4 cm long, acid tasting, untoothed, oval to narrowly triangular, sagittate with 2 backwards-pointing, basal lobes; stipules united to form a sheath surrounding stem or leaf stalk.
Flowers: Actinomorphic, stalked, in whorls forming slender terminal and axillary panicles with the whorls of flowers clearly separated; tepals 6, not winged, inner 3 larger and slightly enlarging in fruit but without swellings; stamens 6; ovary superior, 1-celled; style 3.
Fruits: A small nut, 3-angled.
Habitat: Bog margins, peaty banks, roadsides, heathy pastures, outcrops of siliceous rocks.Distribution: Abundant on acid and peaty soils, not recorded on limestone.
Native status: Native
Of conservation interest: No