What kind of plant is wild spinach?

Wild spinach is also called Rumex, wrinkled leaf sheep's foot, sheep's foot root, etc. It is an annual herb belonging to Rumex of Polygonaceae. It can be seen in most grasslands in Europe and West Asia. The tender stems and leaves taste sour and can be eaten raw. It can also be mixed cold. It is rich in vitamin A, vitamin C and oxalic acid. It tastes sour and smooth. It is often used as a cooking seasoning. It has the effects of cooling blood, detoxification and insecticide. It mainly has tuberculosis hemoptysis, hemorrhoids bleeding, carbuncle swelling poison, scabies, skin itching and other diseases.

Wild spinach roots are fibrous roots, stems erect, 40 - 100 cm tall, deeply grooved, usually unbranched. Leaves lanceolate or elongated, 8 - 14 cm long, 1 - 2.6 cm wide, tapering at both ends, entire, stipitate. Basal leaves and lower leaves of stem are arrow-shaped, 3~12 cm long and 2~4 cm wide, apex acute or obtuse, basal lobes acute, entire or microwave shaped. The petiole is 2 - 10 cm long. Upper leaves of stem smaller, shortly petiolate or sessile. ocrea membranous, easily ruptured. Inflorescences narrowly paniculate, terminal, sparsely branched.

Flower clusters of wild spinach axillary, spaced or crowded on paniculate spikes, spikelets leafy, borne at upper ends of branches. Flowers unisexual, dioecious, green. The base of the flower is articulated. Perianth segments long ovate, conspicuously finely reticulate, each with long ovate tubercles at back, margin narrow, most with a long needle at center of each side, apex straight or curved, also without needle, margin narrower. Achenes elliptic, 3-angled, pointed at both ends, ca. 2 mm, black-brown, glossy. Enclosed in persistent perianth. The flowering period is from May to July and the fruiting period is from June to August.

Wild spinach has been cultivated as a vegetable and has high nutritional value. Every 100 grams of young leaves of wild spinach contain 92 grams of water, 3.2 mg of carotene, 70 mg of vitamin C, 1.8 g of protein, 0.7 g of fat, 2 g of carbohydrates, 440 mg of calcium and 80 mg of phosphorus. However, wild spinach contains acidic potassium oxalate and some tartaric acid, sometimes due to excessive oxalic acid content, it causes poisoning. There have been reports of children dying from eating wild spinach leaves in the literature.

The ancient name of wild spinach is Rumex, which means "sucking." In ancient times, people on the journey to suck its leaves to quench their thirst, so the flower language of wild spinach is "considerate", blessed by this flower and born if a woman must be full of maternal love, gentle and understanding, just like the Virgin Mary in general, of course, once in love is also no regret to pay, let each other feel strong affection.