description Mountain Sorrel is a member of the buckwheat family (family Polygonaceae) which includes mostly herbs, sometimes shrubs or vines, rarely trees, with small flowers in racemes, spike-like clusters, or in heads. Stems commonly have swollen nodes.
Flowers: usually bisexual, radially symmetrical in racemes, spike-like clusters, or in heads; sepals 3-6, separate, petal-like, sometimes in two series of 3 each, the outer series differing somewhat from the inner; petals absent; stamens 3-9. All these parts attached at base of ovary.
Leaves: simple, usually alternate, at the base often forming a membranous sheath around the stem above the node.
Fruit: small, hard, seed-like, generally 3-sided or lens-shaped.There are about 40 genera and 800 species, chiefly in north temperate regions. Rhubarb and Buckwheat are sources of food, and a few species are grown as ornamentals.

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