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Common Plantain

Common Plantain

Plantago major

Identify the Common Plantain from a photo and log your finds with Florapass.

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How common: Very common

Common Plantain is a low, long-lived plant with a flat circle of oval leaves and a thin upright flower stem. It thrives on trampled, open ground and is a familiar sight on lawns, paths, roadsides and fields around the world.

Did you know?

  • Its small seeds can stick to shoes, hooves and paws, helping it spread along paths.
  • In Finnish it’s nicknamed “bandage leaf” because people have used the leaves as a quick makeshift patch.

About the species

Identification

Low herb 5–30 cm. Leaves form a flat circle on the ground; they are oval, on long stalks, with several strong lengthwise ribs; edges smooth or slightly toothed. A leafless stem rises a little taller than the leaves and carries a thin, upright 5–15 cm flower head packed with tiny greenish flowers; the pale dangling threads often show clearly. Later many small seed capsules form. Easy to tell from Narrowleaf plantain: this species has broad oval leaves, not long narrow ones. Flowers in Finland from July to September.

Plant group

Herbaceous plants

Habitat

yards and roadsides, shore

Flowering

Jul–Sep

About the habitat

Open, well-lit and often disturbed ground such as lawns, paths, tracks, roadsides, field edges and shores; very tolerant of trampling. Common across most of Finland; rare only in northern Lapland. Subsp. major occurs throughout the country; subsp. intermedia in the south and west.

Sources

Photo: Robert Flogaus-Faust, CC BY 4.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Plantago major RF.jpg

Text: Pinkka: Verso- ja leviäintunnistus - Kaikki leviäimet, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.39673

Text: Pinkka: Verso- ja leviäintunnistus - Kaikki versot, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.39673

Text: Pinkka: Yläkoulun Pinkka - Kulttuuriympäristöt, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.39673

Text: Pinkka: Laaja maatalouslajintuntemus 4 op - Koppisiemeniset, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.39673

Text: Pinkka: IPS-153 Flora of Subarctic Europe - Nardus-Pyrola, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.39673

Text: Wikipedia (Finnish), CC BY-SA 4.0 https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piharatamo

See also