PLAINTAIN APLENTY

.YOU CAN USE THE LEAVES AND SEEDS OF THIS COMMON PLANT FOR FOOD AND HEALING.

- Christopher Nyerges

NAME: PLANTAIN (PLANTAGO)

Plantain family (Plantaginaceae)

Common names: English plantain, white man's foot, ribwort

DESCRIPTION

The entire plantain plant can grow to about 1 foot across, with the seed stalks rising from 1/2 to 2 feet tall. Typically, the plants hide in lawns, much like dandelion. There are two most common species of plantain: narrowleaf plantain and English plantain. The leaves all radiate from the base in a rosette fashion, with the basal leaves reaching from 6 inches to l foot.

Narrowleaf plantain (P. lanceolata) leaves are linear, 4 or 5 inches long and prominently ribbed with parallel veins that converge at their bases into a broad petiole at least 1 inch long.

English plantain (P. major) has large, glabrous leaves up to 6 inches long and roundish or ovate shaped.

The flower spikes of each are very similar. The 1/8- to 14-inch flowers are arranged in dense spikes on simple, leafless stalks that grow up to about l foot tall, sometimes taller. Each greenish flower is composed of four sepals, a small corolla and four stamens (sometimes two).

The flowers are covered by dry, scarious bracts. Each flower matures into a two-celled seed capsule, and the flowers are formed in spikes. Each spike is about 1 to 2 inches long. The spikes arise on stalks that can be up to 2 feet tall but are typically about 9 inches tall. These erect flower spikes have been compared to cattail spikes and thus are sometimes called “mini-cattail spikes.

WHERE FOUND