Native. Perennial. Propagates by seeds.

Time of bloom: May to September.

Seed-time: July to November.

Range: Labrador to British Columbia, southward to Maine, Michigan, and Minnesota, and along the Rocky Mountains to central Mexico.

Habitat: Moist, rich soil; fields, low meadows, waste places.

This weed is tolerant of soil which is somewhat brackish and it often damages the hay crop from the salt-marsh meadows along the Coast. It has also made its way to Europe, where it is regarded with much dislike.

Taproot rather stout, penetrating the soil to a great depth. Stems tufted, slender, ascending, flexuous, grooved, smooth, and pale green, one to three feet tall, usually simple. Leaves narrow, lance-shaped, pointed at both ends, the sides often nearly folded together; petioles rather short. Racemes erect, the whorls very dense; pedicels scarcely exceeding the calyx-lobes, jointed near the base; calyx olive to reddish brown, the valves triangular-ovate, delicately veined, all tubercled. Achenes dark red, smooth and shining; frequently an impurity of clover and alfalfa seed, so extending the range of a most troublesome weed.

Means of control the same as for Rumex crispus. In well-tilled ground none of these large, deep-rooted weeds attain sufficient size to be very troublesome.