Plantago heterophylla Nutt.

Slender Plantain; Many Seed Plantain

Herb

Annual

Vascular

Slender Plantain is a native annual in the Plantain family (Plantaginaceae). It can be found throughout Alabama. Slender Plantain occurs in gravel along railroad beds, on roadsides, and in fallow fields. It is an annual with a taproot. The linear leaves from a basal rosette. Leaves are entire or with a few small scattered teeth and glabrous or pubescent. Flowers are produced in spikes on scapes that exceed the length of the leaves. The scapes are glabrous or pubescent and round in cross section. The scapes may be loosely flowered with the rachis visible or densely flowered. Individual flowers are greenish-brown, with 4 green sepals with hyaline margins. The corolla is papery in texture, tan in color, with 4 spreading lobes. Each flower is subtended by a bract as long or longer than the sepals. The fruit is a capsule with 10-25 black seed. Slender Plantain is similar in appearance to Dwarf Plantain (Plantago pusilla Nuttall). That species has fewer (4-9) larger seed per capsule.—A. Diamond.

**

Native

**