Plantago major
species of plant
Plantago major, the greater plantain, is a species of flowering plant in the plantain family Plantaginaceae. It is native to Eurasia and temperate Africa, and widely naturalised elsewhere.
Greater plantain is not closely related to the fruit also known as plantain, which is a type of banana.
Description
Plantago major is a herbaceous, perennial plant with a rosette of leaves 15–30 centimetres (6–12 inches), exceptionally 70 centimetres (28 inches), in diameter. Each leaf is oval-shaped, 3–18 cm (1–7 in) long and 2–11 cm (3⁄4–4+1⁄4 in) broad, rarely up to 30 cm (12 in) long and 21 cm (8 in) broad, with an acute apex, a smooth margin, and a distinct petiole almost as long as the leaf itself. There are three to seven (rarely nine) conspicuous veins over the length of the leaf. The flowers are small, greenish-brown with purple stamens, produced in a dense spike 1–20 cm (0–8 in) (rarely to 40 cm (16 in)) long on top of a stem 2–18 cm (1–7 in) (rarely to 70 cm (28 in)) tall; flowering is from May to October in the Northern Hemisphere.
Greater plantain is wind-pollinated and propagates primarily by seeds, which are held on the long, narrow spikes which rise well above the foliage. Each plant can produce up to 20,000 seeds, which are very small and oval-shaped, with a bitter taste.
Taxonomy
There are three subspecies:
Plantago major subsp.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Plantago major” is species of plant. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Plantago, major and species, not as a finished interpretation.
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This entry incorporates text from “Plantago major” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.