Plant · P-356

Dock Patience

Rumex patientia

Dock Patience is a perennial that greens up through a mild winter and puts out a flush of tender leaves and a five-foot flowering stem in spring, then shuts down and rides out summer on its deep taproot - so its real value is a leaf harvest in late winter, when almost nothing else is standing. The leaves cook like spinach and are milder than true sorrel, though they carry enough oxalic acid that they are a dish rather than a daily green, and anyone with gout, kidney stones or arthritis should avoid them. Its leaves are also a caterpillar food source for several butterflies, so chewed foliage on this plant means it is doing its job, not failing at it.