Plantaginaceae

Plantains

From Streeter et al., (2016, p. 404) description of family:

"Annual or perennials with leaves in a basal rosette. Flowers small, green or colourless, solitary or in dense spikes on leafless stalks; 4 sepals and petals."

For the specimen(s) below, hover over image in gallery for description and select for a full screen preview.

ID: 030

Date: 10 Jun 2024

Locality: Page Hill, Buckingham

Location (Lat/Long): 52.003, -0.973

Landscape/habitat: At the side of a pathway, on some amenity grassland within a housing estate.

Identification notes: I've seen a few of these plans around and wondered what they were. The leaves are in a basal rosette, with the flowers at the end of a long stem.

From Streeter et al. (2016, p. 404) description with my observations:

• Leaves: 'narrowly ovate-lanceolate...gradually tapered into petiole' (Yes, leaves are narrow ovals with points at each end, and the end tapers into the leaf stalk, as seen in the photo)

• Inflorescence stalk 'deeply furrowed' (as shown in photo in the gallery)

• Habitat includes 'verges'

• The illustration in the book looks clearly like the specimen in my photos.

iRecord app (Biological Records Centre, 2024) gave 100% agreement with a photo of the flowerhead as Ribwort plantain Plantago lanceolata.

Name: Ribwort plantain, Plantago lanceolata

References

Streeter, D., Hart-Davies, C., Hardcastle, A., Cole, F. and Harper, L. (2016) Collins wild flower guide. Revised and updated 2nd edition. edn. London: William Collins.

Biological Records Centre (2024) iRecord. Available at: https://irecord.org.uk/ (Accessed: 14 May 2024).