Rumex alpestrisJacq.

dock

WFO wfo-0000403545 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Rumex alpestris, photographed by Wolfgang Jauch
fig. a Wolfgang Jauch, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-08-11 / obs. 150234114
Rumex alpestris, photographed by Thomas Koffel
fig. b Thomas Koffel, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 146637698
Rumex alpestris, photographed by Thomas Koffel
fig. c Thomas Koffel, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 146439916
Rumex alpestris, photographed by Thomas Koffel
fig. d Thomas Koffel, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 146643135
Rumex alpestris, photographed by Thomas Koffel
fig. e Thomas Koffel, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 201274623
Rumex alpestris, photographed by Nick Kleinschmidt
fig. f Nick Kleinschmidt, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 164289837
Rumex alpestris, photographed by Igor Balashov
fig. g Igor Balashov, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 155569948
Rumex alpestris, photographed by Julien Renoult
fig. h Julien Renoult, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 8729828

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 47 botanical countries

Regions where Rumex alpestris is native: Altay, Buryatiya, Irkutsk, Japan, Kamchatka, Kazakhstan, Khabarovsk, Korea, Krasnoyarsk, Kuril Is., Magadan, North Caucasus, Sakhalin, Transcaucasus, Tuva, West Siberia, Yakutiya, Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, Corse, Czechia-Slovakia, East European Russia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, North European Russia, Norway, NW. Balkan Pen., Poland, Romania, Sardegna, Spain, Svalbard, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, Alaska, Alberta, British Columbia, Greenland, Montana, Northwest Territories, Wyoming, Yukon AltayBuryatiyaIrkutskJapanKamchatkaKazakhstanKhabarovskKrasnoyarskMagadanNorth CaucasusSakhalinTranscaucasusTuvaWest SiberiaYakutiyaAlbaniaAustriaBulgariaCorseCzechia-SlovakiaEast European RussiaFinlandFranceGermanyGreeceItalyNorth European RussiaNorwayNW. Balkan Pen.PolandRomaniaSpainSvalbardSwedenSwitzerlandUkraineAlaskaAlbertaBritish ColumbiaGreenlandMontanaNorthwest TerritoriesWyomingYukon KoreaSardegna
Native distribution of Rumex alpestris, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Albania ALB EUROPE
Austria AUT
Bulgaria BUL
Corse COR
Czechia-Slovakia CZE
East European Russia RUE
Finland FIN
France FRA
Germany GER
Greece GRC
Italy ITA
North European Russia RUN
Norway NOR
NW. Balkan Pen. YUG
Poland POL
Romania ROM
Sardegna SAR
Spain SPA
Svalbard SVA
Sweden SWE
Switzerland SWI
Ukraine UKR
Altay ALT ASIA-TEMPERATE
Buryatiya BRY
Irkutsk IRK
Japan JAP
Kamchatka KAM
Kazakhstan KAZ
Khabarovsk KHA
Korea KOR
Krasnoyarsk KRA
Kuril Is. KUR
Magadan MAG
North Caucasus NCS
Sakhalin SAK
Transcaucasus TCS
Tuva TVA
West Siberia WSB
Yakutiya YAK
Alaska ASK NORTHERN AMERICA
Alberta ABT
British Columbia BRC
Greenland GNL
Montana MNT
Northwest Territories NWT
Wyoming WYO
Yukon YUK

Not drawn on the map: Kuril Is.. We hold no public-domain boundary for this region, so it is listed rather than guessed at.

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Where it actually grows measured, from 196 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -22.3 °C -11.1 °C -4.5 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 13.8 °C 16.7 °C 19.9 °C
Annual rainfall 1,044 mm 1,641 mm 2,197 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 95 mm 271 mm 481 mm

It is found where winters are severely cold. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 196 research-grade observations of Rumex alpestris that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.

Also published as 20 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Acetosa alpestris (Scop.) Á.Löve
  • Acetosa alpestris subsp. carpatica (Zapał.) Dostál
  • Acetosa alpestris subsp. islandica Á.Löve
  • Acetosa alpestris subsp. lapponica (Hiitonen) Á.Löve
  • Acetosa alpina Mill.
  • Acetosa alpina subsp. amplexicaulis (Lapeyr.) Holub
  • Acetosa lapponica (Hiitonen) Holub
  • Acetosa pratensis subsp. alpestris (Scop.) Á.Löve & D.Löve
  • Acetosa pratensis var. lapponica (Hiitonen) Á.Löve & D.Löve
  • Lapathum alpestre (Jacq.) Scop.
  • Lapathum alpestre Bubani
  • Rumex acetosa subsp. alpestris (Scop.) Á.Löve
  • Rumex acetosa subsp. amplexicaulis (Lapeyr.) O.Bolòs & Vigo
  • Rumex acetosa subsp. islandicus (Á.Löve & D.Löve) Ö.Nilsson
  • Rumex acetosa subsp. lapponicus Hiitonen
  • Rumex amplexicaulis Lapeyr.
  • Rumex arifolius All.
  • Rumex carpaticus Zapał.
  • Rumex lapponicus (Hiitonen) Czernov
  • Rumex montanus Desf.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. USDA PLANTS Database. common name, checklist symbol RULA9. public domain. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.