Description

Species Name- 'Pulcher' means 'pretty' in Latin; but the botanist Fernald commented ''Name scarcely appropriate' (Fernald 1950).

Potentially Misidentified Species- All are introduced except R. verticillatus (Swamp Dock). Rumex patientia (Patience Dock) has not been reported from intertidal habitats in Chesapeake Bay.

Taxonomy

Kingdom	Phylum	Class	Order	Family	Genus
Plantae	Magnoliophyta	Magnoliopsida	Polygonales	Polygonaceae	Rumex

Synonyms

Invasion History

Chesapeake Bay Status

First Record	Population	Range	Introduction	Residency	Source Region	Native Region	Vectors
1877	Established	Stable	Introduced	Boundary Resident	Europe	Eurasia	Shipping(Dry Ballast), Agriculture(Agricultural Weed)

History of Spread

Rumex pulcher (Fiddle Dock), is native to Eurasia. This plant is not listed in Asa Gray's 'Manual of Botany', 1st edition (1848), 5th edition (1867), or 6th edition (1889). However, it was reported from 'around Charlestown SC ' by Chapman (1860) and waste areas in Norfolk by Chickering (1877). It was collected in Wilmington DE in 1898 (Tatnall 1946), and reported from 'ballast grounds, VA to LA and CA' (Robinson and Fernald 1908). Fernald (1950) gave the range as 'waste places, roadsides, etc. Long Island to FL; AK to Mexico' (Fernald 1950).

Rumex pulcher was first reported, in the Chesapeake Bay region, from Norfolk, VA by Chickering (1877), but was not listed in Shreve et al. (1910) for MD. It was collected in beach sand at Cape Charles City VA, 1933 (Tatnall 1946), in ore piles at Canton MD, beside Baltimore Harbor (Reed 1964), and included on a list of intertidal plants, based on a collection at Solomons MD (Krauss et al. 1971). It was reported as 'occasionally escaped on Coastal Plain' in MD (Brown and Brown 1984), and in VA is largely confined to the Coastal Plain and Piedmont regions. It occurs in 14 of ~ 30 tidewater VA counties (Harvill et al. 1992).

History References- Brown and Brown 1984;Chapman 1860; Chickering 1877; Fernald 1950; Gleason and Cronquist 1991; Gray 1848; Gray 1867; Gray 1889; Harvill et al. 1992; Krauss et al. 1971; Natural Resources Conservation Service 1998; Reed 1964; Robinson and Fernald 1908;

Invasion Comments

Ecology

Environmental Tolerances

	For Survival		For Reproduction
	Minimum	Maximum	Minimum	Maximum
Temperature (ºC)
Salinity (‰)	0.0		0.0
Oxygen
pH
	Salinity Range	fresh-meso

Age and Growth

	Male	Female
Minimum Adult Size (mm)
Typical Adult Size (mm)
Maximum Adult Size (mm)
Maximum Longevity (yrs)
Typical Longevity (yrs

Reproduction

	Start	Peak	End
Reproductive Season
Typical Number of Young Per Reproductive Event
Sexuality Mode(s)
Mode(s) of Asexual Reproduction
Fertilization Type(s)
More than One Reproduction Event per Year
Reproductive Startegy
Egg/Seed Form

Impacts

Economic Impacts in Chesapeake Bay

Rumex pulcher (Fiddle Dock) appears to be too uncommon in Chesapeake tidal wetlands to have significant economic impacts.

Economic Impacts Outside of Chesapeake Bay

Rumex pulcher (Fiddle Dock) appears to be too uncommon in North America to have significant economic impacts. (Fernald 1950; Gleason and Cronquist 1991).

References - Fernald 1950; Gleason and Cronquist 1991

Ecological Impacts on Chesapeake Native Species

Rumex pulcher (Fiddle Dock) appears to be too uncommon in Chesapeake tidal wetlands to have significant impacts on native species.

Ecological Impacts on Other Chesapeake Non-Native Species

Rumex pulcher (Fiddle Dock) appears to be too uncommon in Chesapeake tidal wetlands to have significant impacts on other exotic species.

References

Brown, Melvin L.; Brown, Russell G. (1984) Herbaceous Plants of Maryland, , College Park. Pp.

Chapman, A. W. (1860) Flora of the southern United States, In: (Eds.) . , New York. Pp.

Chickering, J. W. (1877) A botanical trip in Virginia, Field and Forest 3: 1-4

Fernald, Merritt L. (1950) Gray's Manual of Botany, In: (Eds.) . , New York. Pp.

Gleason, Henry A.; Cronquist, Arthur (1991) Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada, In: (Eds.) . , Bronx, New York. Pp.

Gray, Asa (1848) A manual of botany of the northern United States., In: (Eds.) . , Boston. Pp.

Gray, Asa (1867) A manual of botany of the northern United States., In: (Eds.) . , New York. Pp.

Gray, Asa (1889) A manual of botany of the northern United States., In: (Eds.) . , New York. Pp.

Harvill, A. M.; Bradley, Ted R.; Stevens, Charles E.; Wieboldt, Thomas F.; Ware, Donna M. E.; Ogle, Douglas W.; Ramsey, Gwynn W.; Fleming, Gary P. (1992) Atlas of the Virginia Flora, , Burkeville, VA. Pp.

Kartesz, John T. (1994) A synonymized checklist of the vascular flora of the United States, Canada, and Greenland., In: (Eds.) . , Portland OR. Pp.

Krauss, R.W.; Brown, R. G.; Rappleye, R. D.; Owens, A. B.; Shearer, C.; Hsiao, E.; Reveal, J. (1971) Checklist of plant species occurring within the hightide limits of the Chesapeake Bay, and its tributaries., , College Park, Maryland. Pp.

Mills, Edward L.; Leach, Joseph H.; Carlton, James T.; Secor, Carol L. (1993) Exotic species in the Great Lakes: a history of biotic crises and anthropogenic introductions., Journal of Great Lakes Research 19: 1-54

Mills, Edward L.; Scheuerell, Mark D.; Carlton, James T.; Strayer, David (1997) Biological invasions in the Hudson River: an inventory and historical analysis., New York State Museum Circular 57: 1-51

1997-2024 USDA PLANTS Database.. Onine databse

Reed, Clyde F. (1964) A flora of the chrome and manganese ore piles at Canton, in the port of Baltimore, Maryland and at Newport News, Virginia, with descriptions of genera and species new to the flora of the eastern United States., Phytologia 10: 321-406

Resource Management Inc. (1993) National list of plant species that occur in wetlands., , Minneapolis.. Pp.

Robinson, Benjamin Lincoln; Fernald, Merrit L. (1908) Gray's New Manual of Botany., , New York. Pp.

Tatnall, Robert R. (1946) Flora of Delaware and the Eastern Shore, , Wilmington. Pp.