Plantago maritima
Plantago major
Alaska plantain, common plantain, goose tongue, maritime plantain, plantain maritime, salt marsh plantain, sea plantain, seaside plantain
common plantain, great plantain, nippleseed, plantain majeur
0–40 mm, usually branched.
0–20 mm.
10–220 × (1–)10–15 mm;
blade linear to lanceolate, margins entire or toothed, veins not conspicuous, surfaces glabrous, sometimes hairy.
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.
40–120 mm, glabrous or hirsute.
50–250(–500) mm, surpassing leaves or not, glabrous or hirsute.
greenish or brownish, (15–)50–200(–290) mm, densely or loosely flowered;
bracts broadly ovate, 1.5–4(–6) mm, length 0.8–1.2 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 1.5–3.5 mm;
corolla radially symmetric, tube hairy, lobes reflexed, 1–1.5 mm, base obtuse;
stamens 4.
sepals 1.5–2 mm;
corolla radially symmetric, lobes reflexed, 0.5–1 mm, base obtuse;
stamens 4.
(2–)4–5 mm, dehiscing at middle.
1–3, 1.5–3 mm.
5–35, 0.5–1 mm.
= 24.
= 12.
Plantago maritima
Plantago major
Plantago maritima has been reported from Utah; no specimen supporting that report has been found.
Since the 1930s, when Plantago maritima was shown to have high levels of phenotypic plasticity (J. W. Gregor and J. M. S. Lang 1950), it usually has been accepted in a broad sense. That approach is followed here, with all dwarf and loose-flowered forms (such as P. borealis and P. decipiens, respectively) included under this name.
(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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