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Western Wetland Flora

Field Office Guide to Plant Species

Common Plantain
Plantago major L.

JPG -- Species Photo JPG -- Distribution Map

Family: Plantain (Plantaginaceae)
Flowering: May-October
Field Marks: This plantain differs by its broad leaves, continuous cylindrical spikes, and green instead of wine-colored leaf stalks.
Habitat: Disturbed areas, often becoming an aggressive weed in lawns.
Habit: Perennial herb with a thickened rootstock and with fibrous roots.
Stems: None except for the leafless stalk that bears the cylindrical spike of flowers.
Leaves: All basal, broadly elliptic to ovate, up to 6 inches long, up to 4 inches wide, pointed or occasionally more or less rounded at the tip, rounded or heart-shaped at the base, usually with some hairs, conspicuously veiny; leaf stalks green
Flowers: Crowded into cylindrical spikes at the tip of leafless stems; spikes up to 12 inches long, less than 1/2 inch thick; each flower subtended by a bract up to 1/6 inch long.
Sepals: 4, united below, green.
Petals: 4, united below, nearly transparent, the lobes about 1/20 inch long and turned downward.
Stamens: 4.
Pistils: Ovary superior; stigmas 2-lobed.
Fruits: Capsules more or less spherical, up to 1/6 inch in diameter, smooth, containing 6-30 seeds; seeds ovoid, about 1/20 inch long, brown or black, conspicuously net-veined.
Notes: This species can be an unsightly weed in lawns.

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URL: http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/plants/florawe/species/8/planmajo.htm
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Page Last Modified: Saturday, 02-Feb-2013 06:28:17 EST
Menlo Park, CA [caww55]