Do you have any suggestions for germinating Rumex seeds colected from the wild about now (May)?

It depends what species of Rumex you are thinking of.

We suggest you consult Grime JP, Hodgson JG and Hunt R. (1988) Comparative Plant Ecology, Unwin Hyman.

This gives the upper and lower temp ranges at which 50% of the germination under optimum conditions occurs. For R.acetosa this is 6-24 deg.C, for R.acetosella it is 16-36 deg.C and for R.crispus it is 15-23 deg.C.

Also any light / dark effects are given - thus R.acetosella is unaffected by the light regime but R.crispus and R.acetosa are reported as being inhibited to at least some degree by the dark.

Germination in R.crispus and R.acetosella is reported as being enhanced after dry storage at 20 deg.C.

I guess you are aware of the normal treatments of scarification, chilling, washing etc which you could try, but we are not sure which one might give the best results.

Roger Delpech and John Hewitson