DESCRIPTIVE MANUAL 



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Fig. 174-A. Distribution of Prairie Plantain. 



Bracted Plantain (Plant ago aristata Michx.). 



Description. — A loosely hairy, green annual, becoming glab- 

 rous with age, leaves 1-3-nerved, oblong, linear, or filiform; spike 

 slender, cylindrical, with narrow linear bracts, much longer than 

 the flowers. Flowers of two kinds with reference to the length of 

 anthers and filaments on different plants, mostly cleistogamous ; 

 corolla lobes broad and rounded; seeds 2, smooth, light brown, 

 with a ring on the hollowed portion. The P. purshii is much like 

 bracted plantain except that its leaves are silky villous and slender ; 

 spike dense. 



Distribution. — The bracted plantain is common in southern Iowa 

 and is spreading to many other parts of the state with clover seed ; 

 on prairies, Illinois to Louisiana, naturalized eastward. The P. 

 purshii is found chiefly along railroads where it has been intro- 

 duced; common; native from western Minnesota and Iowa to the 

 Pacific coast. 



Extermination. — Only clean clover seed should be used. Easily 

 exterminated by cultivation. Practice rotation of crops, oats, corn 

 and clover. 



Wallaces' Farmer says concerning its extermination: "The en- 

 tire southern country seems to be infested with bracted or lance- 

 leaved plantain, and seed coming from the south should always be 

 regarded with suspicion. It is one of the worst weeds that can get 

 on the farm. Cut the hay, plow up the land, put it in wheat, and 

 don't undertake to take a crop of clover seed from that land 

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