Sheep's Sorrel - Rumex acetosella

Low to short, slender, tufted plant with erect stems. Leaves arrow shaped with narrow long basal lobes spreading, or pointing forward. Flowers greenish but turning red, with male and female flowers on separate plants.  The upper leaves do not clasp the stem.

Common Sorrel is larger and has leaves with smaller basal leaf lobes pointing backwards (sideways or forwards in Sheep's Sorrel) and with the upper leaves clasping the stem.

The size should identify it, but also check the basal and stem-leaves.  The flowers are very similar to other sorrels

Dry meadows, grassy heaths, bare places.

May to August.

Perennial.

Widespread and frequent throughout Britain, particularly in the west.

Frequent in Leicestershire and Rutland. In the 1979 Flora survey of Leicestershire it was found in 240 of the 617 tetrads.