Plant · P-304

Yellow Dock

Rumex crispus

Yellow Dock's taproot is one of the standard blood-and-liver remedies of Western herbalism, and unlike most dynamic accumulators claimed for shallow-rooted plants, this one genuinely has the deep root to back the claim. Grazing animals normally leave it alone since it is unpalatable, and the real poisoning risk comes from bad management - spraying it with herbicide without pulling stock off the pasture makes the wilted, dying plant suddenly appealing at exactly the wrong moment. It also seeds itself into any wet, seasonally flooded ground - ditches, pond margins, swale bottoms - and needs mowing before seed set to keep it in check, and its seed is specifically toxic to poultry.