Sheep Sorrel

Rumex acetosella

Plant Data

Order:

Caryophyllales

Family:

Polygonaceae (Dock)

Flowering Months:

JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC

Flowers:

Small and red, in compact leafless spikes, almost always unbranched.

Fruit:

A round, brown, 3-edged seed (achene).

Leaves:

Linear, untoothed, arrow-shaped leaves. The two linear basal lobes are pointed and distinctive in shape. Stem leaves are alternately arranged. Not hairy.

Maximum Size:

25cm tall.

Foraging Notes:

The leaves can be eaten, raw or cooked. They taste of lemon because of the oxalic acid it contains. The seed can be eaten, raw or cooked. The root can be cooked and eaten.
Never consume a wild plant unless you are 100% certain that it is safe to eat and you know that you have identified it correctly.

Other Names:

Common Sheep Sorrel, Cow Sorrel, Cuckoo Bread, Cuckoo's Sorrel, Field Sorrel, Gentleman's Sorrel, Green Sauce, Horse Sorrel, Mountain Sorrel, Ranty-tanty, Red Sorrel, Red Weed, Sour Dock, Sour Grass, Sour Weed, Sourleaf, Surette, Toad's Sorrel.

Habitats:

Beaches, farmland, grassland, heathland, lawns, meadows, roadsides, sand dunes, waterside, woodland.