Curly Dock

Out of coffee? Grab some dried and roasted Curly Dock seeds and you are good to go! Curly Dock (Rumex crispus) is in the Buckwheat family and  has a unique look, with its thin stalks and hundreds of tiny reddish-brown blossoms that continue all summer, through October. The Broadleaf Dock is very similar, but with more oval shaped leaves.

One website listed the Curly Dock leaves as being edible, before flowering. Other references state that a poultice of the roots has been used to treat iron-deficiency anemia for centuries. It's also a blood purifier and liver decongestant because the poultice stimulates the liver to produce bile. It remedies constipation while strengthening the colon, was employed to treat syphilis, and the powered roots were used as a tooth powder.
The "dock" part of the name means to cut off, so some botanists think it came from cutting off these persistent weeds. Curiously, there is a street named after this weed in Black Butte, Central Oregon!

We found small clusters of it at Jackson Bottom Wetlands, along the North Bobcat Trail. 6-18-2013.

Curly Dock with Birdsfoot Trefoil

A tree swallow watches me work!