Flora of the Hawaiian Islands
Dicotyledon Literature for Plantago lanceolata
Wagner et al., 1990, 1999.
   Plantaginaceae -- The Plantain Family Bibliography
      Plantago lanceolata

Common name(s): plantain, buckhorn, English plantain, narrow-leaved plantain
General Information
DistributionNative to Europe and north-central Asia, widely naturalized.In the Hawaiian Islands, naturalized on Midway, French Frigate Shoals, Kaua`i, O`ahu, Moloka`i, Lana`i, Maui, Hawai`i.
















Habit
 Perennial or biennial herbs from a taproot, caudex usually with tufts of long hairs around leaf bases.
Leaves
 Leaves basal, narrowly lanceolate to oblanceolate, 5-40 cm long, 0.5-4 cm wide, 5-nerved, long-villous or sometimes glabrous, margins remotely denticulate to subentire, long-attenuate to a winged petiole 0-15 cm long.
Flowers
 Flowers perfect or unisexual, scapes 15-50 cm long, spikes dense and head-like, ovoid to cylindrical, (0.5-)1-10(-12) cm long, flowers very crowded, bracts deltate to elliptic, 2.5-5 mm long, scarious, appressed pilose toward base; sepals strongly unequal, scarious, midrib ciliate, anterior pair completely connate, the connate structure elliptic, scarious, 2-nerved, 2.5-3.5 mm long, apex bifid, posterior pair distinct, ovate; corolla lobes spreading, 1.5-2.8 mm long; ovary with 2 ovules.
Fruit
 Capsules narrowly ellipsoid, 3-4 mm long, dehiscent near base.
Seeds
 Seeds 2, yellow to pale brown, 2.3-3 mm long.
Chromosomes
 2n = 12, 13, 24, 96