Taproot large, deep, and fleshy. Stem is erect, branched, smooth, and with a milky sap. Leaves are basal and along the stems. Leaves on stems are smaller and either less lobed or entire. Flower head of ray flowers only, bright blue, about one inch across, formed at ends of branches and in the axils of leaves of upper part of plant.
Flowers are most conspicuous in the morning and close late in the day.
An annual shallow-rooted plant. Leaves nearly smooth, deeply cut into a number of lobes, mostly alternate. Upper leaves alternate, the base of the short petiole having a papery sheath surrounding the stem. Flowers in dense clusters on branches at tip of stem, without petals, small, greenish, becoming reddish-brown at maturity. There is also a Broadleaf Dock that is similar to curly dock except the leaves are broad and flat with a heart-shaped base.