Fiddle dock Seeds

Fiddle dock (Rumex pulcher) is a perennial, tap-rooted dock that forms a ground-level rosette of waisted, fiddle-shaped leaves and flowers at roughly 20–60 cm tall.

Also known as: Fiddle dock, Red dock, Fiddleleaf dock, Schöner Ampfer (German), Patience violon (French).

How to recognise it

• Leaves: basal blades up to about 12 cm long, often pinched in the middle like a violin body, with a notched or rounded base. Stem leaves are smaller and stalkless.
• Flowers: small and green, in dense clusters spaced along the branches.
• Fruit: each three-sided nut sits inside three enlarged, net-veined valves 4–6 mm long, with a wart and short stiff teeth along the margin. Fruiting heads turn rusty brown.

Fiddle dock or curled dock?

Check the fruit valves first. Fiddle dock has prominent teeth on the valves and narrower, often waisted leaves. Curled dock (Rumex crispus) has smooth-edged, reddish-brown valves that swell in the centre, and it grows taller, up to 1.5 m. The two hybridise where they grow side by side, so plants from mixed stands can show a blend of traits.

Where it comes from

Native to the Mediterranean region and introduced elsewhere, where it turns up in pastures, meadows, roadsides and disturbed ground. Because it spreads in disturbed land, check your local invasive-plant rules before sowing outdoors.

Sowing and care

1. Sow into a clean, well-drained mix.
2. Keep moisture steady while seedlings emerge.
3. Move seedlings into stronger light gradually.

We hold no sourced germination temperature, sowing depth or lot test for this seed, so none is stated here.

FAQ

Does fiddle dock die back every year?

The above-ground branches die and turn brown after flowering and fruiting in summer. The plant regrows from its underground rootstock in autumn or winter.

When does the seed germinate?

Seed has little dormancy and germinates throughout the growing season, with a main flush in autumn, according to an Australian weed profile.