Plantago major
Plantago sempervirens
common plantain, great plantain, nippleseed, plantain majeur
evergreen plantain
0–20 mm.
100–400 mm, freely branched.
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.
cauline, opposite, 30–60 × 0.75–1 mm;
blade linear to linear-lanceolate, margins entire, veins inconspicuous, surfaces hairy.
50–250(–500) mm, surpassing leaves or not, glabrous or hirsute.
30–80 mm, hairy.
brownish or greenish, (20–)50–300(–400) mm, densely flowered;
bracts lanceolate, 0.5–1 mm, length 0.3–0.7 times sepals.
greenish or brownish, 40–85 mm, densely flowered;
bracts broadly ovate, 5–6 mm, lengths equal to sepals.
sepals 1.5–2 mm;
corolla radially symmetric, lobes reflexed, 0.5–1 mm, base obtuse;
stamens 4.
sepals 5–6 mm;
corolla radially symmetric, lobes reflexed, 3–3.5 mm, base obtuse;
stamens 4.
(2–)4–5 mm, dehiscing at middle.
5–35, 0.5–1 mm.
1 or 2, 2 mm.
= 12.
= 12.
Plantago major
Plantago sempervirens
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.)
Plantago sempervirens is known from San Diego County; one specimen (JEPS) was collected in 2008 in Torrey Pines State Reserve.
Plantago cynops Linnaeus (1762, not 1753), a rejected name, has been misapplied to P. sempervirens.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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