Plantago lanceolata L.
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Authority
Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.
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Family
Plantaginaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Species Description - Fibrous-rooted perennial with a stout erect caudex, often flowering the first year, ± tan-woolly at the crown; lvs usually ascending, villous to glabrous, 3–several- nerved, narrowly elliptic or lance-elliptic, long-acute, 1–4 dm × 1–4 cm; scapes strongly 5-sulcate, strigose above, 1.5–6 dm; spikes very dense, ovoid-conic at first, at maturity cylindric, 1.5–8 cm × nearly or fully 1 cm; bracts thin, ovate, broadly scarious-margined, often caudate-tipped; sep often villous-ciliate toward the tip of the strong midnerve, the 2 outer connate with separate midveins, merely notched at the tip, or entire; cor-lobes 2–2.5 mm, spreading or reflexed; fr 3–4 mm, circumscissile near the base, the (1)2 seeds shining, blackish, 2 mm, deeply concave on the adaxial face; some fls or plants sometimes pistillate; 2n=12. Native of Eurasia, now a cosmopolitan weed, particularly in moister parts of the temperate zone, common in lawns and along roadsides.
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Common Names
English plantain, ribgrass