Род Щавель (Rumex) – описание и виды

Genus of plants
Automatic taxobox
|image = Rumex X patientia Sturm55. jpg
|image caption = Patience dock(Rumex patientia)
|taxon = Rumex
|authority = L. 1753
|type species = Rumex patientia
|type species authority = L.
|subdivision ranks = Species
|subdivision = About 200, see text
|synonyms ref = Rumex species are used as food plants by the larvae of a number of Lepidoptera species, and are the only host plants of Lycaena rubidus.

They are erect plants, usually with long taproots. The fleshy to leathery leaves form a basal rosette at the root. The basal leaves may be different from those near the inflorescence. They may or may not have stipules. Minor leaf veins occur. The leaf blade margins are entire or crenate. The usually inconspicuous flowers are carried above the leaves in clusters. The fertile flowers are mostly hermaphrodites, or they may be functionally male or female. The flowers and seeds grow on long clusters at the top of a stalk emerging from the basal rosette; in many species, the flowers are green, but in some (such as sheep's sorrel, Rumex acetosella) the flowers and their stems may be brick red. Each seed is a three sided achene, often with a round tubercle on one or all three sides.

These plants have many uses. Broad leaved dock (Rumex obtusifolius) used to be called butter dock because its large leaves were used to wrap and conserve butter. Rumex hymenosepalus has been cultivated in the Southwestern US as a source of tannin (roots contain up to 25%), for use in leather tanning, while leaves and stems are used for a mordant free mustard colored dye. These plants are edible. The leaves of most species contain oxalic acid and tannin, and many have astringent and slightly purgative qualities. Some species with particularly high levels of oxalic acid are called sorrels (including sheep's sorrel Rumex acetosella, common sorrel Rumex acetosa, and French sorrel Rumex scutatus), and some of these are grown as leaf vegetables or garden herbs for their acidic taste. In the United Kingdom, Rumex obtusifolius is often found growing near stinging nettles, owing to both species favouring a similar environment, and there is a widely held belief that the underside of the dock leaf, squeezed to extract a little juice, can be rubbed on the skin to counteract the itching caused by brushing against a nettle plant. This home remedy is not supported by any science, although it is possible that the act of rubbing may act as a distracting counterstimulation, or that belief in the dock's effect may provide a placebo effect. In traditional Austrian medicine, R. alpinus leaves and roots have been used internally for treatment of viral infections. Rumex nepalensis is also has a variety of medicinal uses in the Greater Himalayas, including Sikkim in Northeastern India.

Several fossil fruits of Rumex sp. have been described from middle Miocene strata of the Fasterholt area near Silkeborg in Central Jutland, Denmark. One fossil fruit of a Rumex species has been extracted from a borehole sample of the Middle Miocene fresh water deposits in Nowy Sacz Basin, West Carpathians, Poland. This fossil fruit is similar to the fruits of the extant species Rumex maritimus and Rumex ucranicus which both have fossil records from the Pliocene and Pleistocene of Europe.

Nutrition information is shown in the infobox on the right.