Plantago macrocarpa
Plantago major
Alaska plantain, seashore plantain
common plantain, great plantain, nippleseed, plantain majeur
0–20 mm.
0–20 mm.
(80–)100–400(–550) × (5–)10–35(–40) mm;
blade oblanceolate or almost linear, margins entire, veins conspicuous, 4 or 5, surfaces glabrous.
20–150(–400) × 10–120(–170) mm;
petiole to 200 mm;
blade ovate to cordate-ovate, margins entire or toothed, veins conspicuous, surfaces glabrous or hirsute.
300–400 mm, glabrous or sparsely hairy, becoming densely so distally.
50–250(–500) mm, surpassing leaves or not, glabrous or hirsute.
greenish or brownish, 350–450 mm, loosely flowered;
bracts ovate to deltate, 3–4 mm, length 1.5–2.5 times sepals.
brownish or greenish, (20–)50–300(–400) mm, densely flowered;
bracts lanceolate, 0.5–1 mm, length 0.3–0.7 times sepals.
sepals 1.5–2 mm;
corolla radially symmetric, lobes spreading, 1.5–2 mm, base obtuse;
stamens 4.
sepals 1.5–2 mm;
corolla radially symmetric, lobes reflexed, 0.5–1 mm, base obtuse;
stamens 4.
ovoid, indehiscent or dehiscence not circumscissile.
(2–)4–5 mm, dehiscing at middle.
1 or 2, 4–5 mm.
5–35, 0.5–1 mm.
= 24.
= 12.
Plantago macrocarpa
Plantago major
Plantago macrocarpa has been documented along the Pacific coast south to the mouth of the Yachats River in Oregon.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Subspecies intermedia (Gilibert) Lange is often accepted by European botanists as a separate species, Plantago uliginosa F. W. Schmidt. Observations suggest that plants referable to this taxon may occur in the United States; it has been reported from the New England states (A. Haines 2011). Subspecies intermedia is distinguished by more abundant (11–35) and smaller (0.8–1 mm) seeds, ascending spikes, ovoid fruits, and elliptic or lanceolate leaf blades. Without detailed morphologic and genetic investigations of North American plants similar to the study of European plants by M. Morgan-Richards and K. Wolff (1999), it is not possible to draw any conclusions about the status and distribution of this or any other possible infraspecific taxa of P. major in North America.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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