Plantago lanceolata L., english plantain. Perennial herb, with a thick caudex and ± diffuse–rooted, rosetted (= multiple shoots), acaulous, several—many–stemmed at base, scapose, in range 20—70 cm tall; gynomonoecious (gynodioecious); shoots with only basal leaves, silky–hairy to nearly glabrous.
Stems at plant base where leaves attached.
Leaves helically alternate, simple, petiolate to sessile, without stipules; petiole in range 0—45 mm long, indistinct from blade, U–shaped in ×–section, 5–veined or 7(9)–veined, aging purplish, tough and difficult to tear, base flared with membranous margins, having silky hairs to 10 mm long; blade ± elliptic to oblanceolate or lanceolate, in range 100—180 × 20—40 mm, long–tapered at base, ± entire but remotely toothed having blunt teeth on margins, acute at tip, conspicuously parallel–veined with 5 or 7(9) principal veins raised on lower surface, ± glabrous (full sun) to conspicuously pubescent with silky hairs (shade), minor veins inconspicuously netlike.
Inflorescence spike, terminal on scapelike peduncle axillary to basal leaf, several—many per plant, compact ovoid–conic aging cylindric, 10—80 × 10—12 mm, with 100s of flowers, bracteate, glabrous (sparsely villous); peduncle 5—8–ridged, in range to 600 × 1.5—2.5 mm, green, very tough and eventually wiry, with appressed, upward–pointing white hairs, hollow; bractlet subtending flower cupped–obovate to broadly cupped–ovate, in range 2.6—3 × 1.7—2 mm, broadly tapered and broadly attached at base, entire, acuminate at tip, scarious except narrowly green and herbaceous along most of midrib, glabrous (sparsely villous), with a small brownish dot at top of herbaceous part of midrib.
Flower bisexual (also pistillate), radial, 4 mm long + long–exserted style and stamens, strongly protogynous; sepals 4 appearing as 3 with 2 sepals fused to form 1 outer sepal, scarious, dimorphic, persistent around fruit; outer sepal ovate to fan–shaped, 2—2.4 × 1.5—2.2 mm, rounded to long–tapered at base, truncate, weakly 2–toothed or 2–notched at tip above 2 veins, glabrous or with several fine villous hairs near end of each vein, narrowly herbaceous along each vein; lateral sepals typically ovate, 2.1—2.2 mm long, slightly asymmetrically folded lengthwise and ± keeled above midpoint, 1–veined, villous–ciliate along vein approaching tip; corolla 4–lobed, rotate to strongly reflexed when anthers exserted, translucent and scarious, persistent; tube + throat narrowly urn–shaped, 2.5—3 mm long, neatly abscising around circumference as ovary matures; lobes ovate, 1.4—1.8 × 0.8—1.3 mm, light reddish brown to orangish on swollen midvein at base and intruding into throat, slightly cupped upward, acute to acuminate at tip; stamens 4 (0 in pistillate flowers), alternate with corolla lobes, fused to corolla tube ca. 0.5 mm from base, strongly exserted; filaments folded in bud but unfolding and becoming in range 4.5—5 mm long, colorless; anthers dorsifixed near base of connective, dithecal, narrowly triangular prior to dehiscence becoming broadly heart–shaped to ± oblong after dehiscence, ca. 2 × 0.5—1.1 mm, cordate at base, with a sterile, greenish appendage at tip, light yellow with greenish connective, longitudinally dehiscent; pollen light yellow to colorless; nectary disc absent; pistil 1, 3—5 mm long; ovary superior, ± spheroid slightly compressed, ca. 0.7 mm long, 2–chambered, each chamber with 1 ovule attached to center; style exserted days before stamens become exserted, 2.3—4 mm long, reddish brown to brown, stigmatic and short–hairy along most of style, the basal 0.3—0.5 mm thicker, greenish, and glabrous.
Fruit capsule, dehiscent around fruit 0.8—1.3 mm above base (circumscissile), 2–seeded, ellipsoid to oblongoid, 2.5—3.5 × 1.5—2 mm, pale tan; lower portion of fruit persistent.
Seed ± hemi–ellipsoid to hemi–oblongoid, 1.8—3 × 1—1.5 mm, shiny brown to coppery brown (black), convex on outer side and concave on inner side, thickly margined on tips and lateral edges of concavity; ± transparent with pale, linear embryo visible through surface (especially from convex surface), mucilaginous when wet.
A. C. Gibson & B. A. Prigge