Horseradish v's Dock leaves

[Steve Wurzel]

Hello plant experts..

Can you offer me advice on ID'ing young Horseradish (current season May) as opposed to young dock leaves.. as far as I can tell they look very similar, and was wondering what the obvious differences are?

Slugs ate the Horseradish plant I just planted, but everbody says it grows like a weed everywhere in these parts (Somerset, except in my garden!!).. but so does Dock

Obviously mature Dock is easy to spot with its red dotted broad tough leaves, but the young version doesn't have those features.

Thanks in advance.

[lol geoff]

I would have thought the quick way would be to pick a leaf, crush it and have a sniff.

[Dutchess]

Originally Posted by lol geoff

I would have thought the quick way would be to pick a leaf, crush it and have a sniff.

That's exactly what I wanted to say but thought I'd sound too unscientific! Failing that, dig a root and do the same. Unmistakable!

[Adam Cheeseman]

Horseradish leaves are also toothed and wavy, which dock leaves aren't.

[Steve Wurzel]

Originally Posted by lol geoff

I would have thought the quick way would be to pick a leaf, crush it and have a sniff.

Not so it would seem..

Sacrificing the few millimeters of horeseradish leaf I have left in my garden .. it smells "grassy" with a very faint high note of mint without smelling minty.. which doesn't make sense but it would if you could smell it, but it's too faint to take notice off really. Dock leaves smell grassy too, so smell isn't the key factor, although logic says it should be!!

Originally Posted by Adam Cheeseman

Horseradish leaves are also toothed and wavy, which dock leaves aren't.

That is the key thanks Adam..

Here is a nice photo showing a toothed leaf of an unslugged horeseradish..

http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/horseradish-2.jpg

Thanks for that.. now I need to find where these grow like weeds

[Gill Catton]

Is the growth structure not quite different? Horseradish resembling a buried shuttlecock with only the feathers above ground, the leaves coming from a single point I mean where as Dock tend to be big leaves branching off a central stem most of the way up?

[Steve Wurzel]

Originally Posted by Gill Catton

Horseradish resembling a buried shuttlecock with only the feathers above ground

Great description Gill, that's exactly what my slug eaten horseradish looks like, except now it's just the quills LOL

Oddly, young dock seems to grow in some cases with a "shuttlecock" effect, with a center stem growing up in most cases, but not always present in young examples from my observations. So it's similar again in some cases to horseradish.

One other point of note, I've had chance to test both smells and the horseradish has a stronger grassy smell than dock, but it is a very similar smell so unless you can smell both I'll still stand by earlier comments of smell not being a reliable indicator.

Great info, many thanks to all contributors.

[witham]

you could always try stinging your self with a nettle and see which one soothes the sting

[Dutchess]

Originally Posted by witham

you could always try stinging your self with a nettle and see which one soothes the sting

Argh! What a horrible thought!

[Steve Wurzel]

Originally Posted by witham

you could always try stinging your self with a nettle and see which one soothes the sting

LOL .. I dread to think what horseraddish rubbed onto sting feels like

I found a young horseraddish plant based on the sawtoothed leaf ID initially, then I checked out the "shuttlecock" stems, then smelt the grassier leaves.. ID'd I'd say all that was left was the dig it up and eat it or the stinger test.. no thanks to either