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English plantain

Habit Fibrous-rooted perennial from a short, stout, woody base, tan-woolly at the crown, the several scapes 1.5-6 dm. tall, grooved and ridged.
Leaves

Leaves all basal, woolly to glabrous, 3- to several-nerved, lance-elliptic, acute, 10-40 cm. long and 1-4 cm. wide.

Flowers

Inflorescence a dense, bracteate, cylindric spike, 1.5-8 cm. long and 1 cm. wide;

bracts thin, ovate, acuminate; the 4 sepals with strong mid-veins, the outer two united, with separate mid-veins;

corolla lobes 4, 2-2.5 mm. long, spreading or reflexed;

stamens 4, exerted;

ovary superior, 2-celled.

Fruits

Capsule 3-4 mm. long

Plantago lanceolata

Plantago virginica

Flowering time April-August
Habitat Roadsides, fields, and other disturbed, open areas.
Distribution
Occuring on both sides of the Cascades crest in Washington; Alaska to California, east across North America to the Atlantic Coast; cosmopolitan.
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Origin Introduced from Europe
Conservation status Not of concern
Sibling taxa
P. arenaria, P. coronopus, P. elongata, P. macrocarpa, P. major, P. maritima, P. patagonica, P. pusilla, P. subnuda
P. arenaria, P. coronopus, P. elongata, P. lanceolata, P. macrocarpa, P. major, P. maritima, P. patagonica, P. pusilla, P. subnuda
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