Left and right, Sorrel Dock among the grass in County Mayo. Centre, Broad Leaved Dock, Rumex obtusifolius. a three-sided nut. In the Sorrel Dock, these winged nuts are held crop, but the farm manager is not very pleased, because he does aloft on conspicious red spikes, which my mother, as a little girl, not like to see dock weed on the farm.” No doubt northern farmers, who take great pride in lands used rub off as “money” when playing shop with her sisters. that are neat and tidy, would have had their reservations on this While unpopular on the farm, there was a suggestion by unusual suggestion and would much preferred the discussions agricultural experts that dock could be made pay. In 2008 there to concentrate on the potential of willow or miscanthus. was a debate on biomass energy at the Northern Assembly. Dock also came up for consideration as a plant that could One of the scientists called in by clean up contaminated ground. The the Committee for Agricultural and long roots draw up minerals from the Rural Development was Dr Lindsay soil, and as the Professor of Botany Easson, and he pointed out that dock at Liverpool University, Anthony has the potential to be an energy Bradshaw, discovered about forty crop. Dr Easson, talking about work years ago docks can continue to thrive being done at the UK’s equivalent of on soils that would kill other plants. Ireland’s Teagasc, the Agri-Food and This means that more tolerant strains Biosciences Institute, said, “we have could be planted on old mine tips and a novel crop, which no one else in the land contaminated by metals to draw British Isles is considering as a bioout the toxic waste. Oddly enough, mass crop. If any of you are involved the more tolerant plans, when tested, in farming you will know that one were at a disadvantage when transof the biggest weed problems that ferred to clean soils. we have is the dock weed. As part of Since then, bioremediation has bea review undertaken by our global come more common, but fast-growing research unit, it was discovered that micro-organisms seem to have bea species of dock weed has been come a lot more popular than plants, developed in Romania as a highly so, as with energy, cultivating tolerant productive crop that produces a great docks simply remain just another deal of biomass on an annual basis. bright idea that never really took off. We have planted a small area of that Ripening seeds of the Curled Dock, Rumex crispus, one of the species common in Ireland. Photograph: Christian Fischer.
Familiar leaves of the Broad Leaved Dock, Rumex obtusifolius