Aquatic and Wetland Vascular Plants of the Northern Great Plains
44. Plantaginaceae, the Plantain Family
1. Plantago L. -- Plantain2. Plantago major L. -- Common plantain
Fibrous-rooted plants with scapes 1-4 dm tall. Leaf blades narrowly to broadly ovate, 4-22 cm long, 3-12 cm wide, pubescent when young, remaining pubescent on the principal veins or becoming glabrous at maturity, obtuse to rounded at the tip, entire or irregularly and shallowly toothed, sometimes slightly crisped, abruptly tapered to the petiole; petioles shorter to longer than the blades. Spikes mostly 5-30 cm long, the scape sparsely pubescent; bracts and sepals keeled on the back, the bracts shorter than the sepals; sepals obovate, 1.5-2 mm long, widely scarious-margined; corolla lobes less than 1 mm long. Capsule ovoid, 2.5-3.5 mm long; seeds 6-30 per capsule, oblong-angular, 0.8-1.5 mm long. Jul--Sep. Shores, stream banks, flats and ditches, also in disturbed places, lawns and gardens; common; (Intro. from Europe and established as a weed throughout the U.S., most of Can. and elsewhere).
 Plantago major. |
|
Previous Section -- Plantago eriopoda Torr. -- Alkali plantain
Return to Family -- Plantaginaceae - The Plantain Family
