PLANTAGINACEAE (PLANTAIN FAMILY) 391 
COMMON, OR BROAD-LEAVED, PLANTAIN 
Plantago major, L. 
Other English names: Greater Plantain, Dooryard Plantain, Bird- 
seed Plantain, Waybread. 
Introduced. Perennial. Propagates by seeds. 
Time of bloom: May to September. 
Seed-time: July to October. 
Range: Throughout North America except the extreme North. 
Habitat: Yards and lawns, roadsides, and waste places. 
A very persistent intruder in yards and lawns, no doubt because 
of the long vitality of its seeds. Leaves all basal, long ovate, 
entire, obtuse, rounded at base, 
with five to seven prominent length- 
wise veins that all draw together 
into a thick, channeled petiole; the 
outer row of the spreading tuft 
lies close to the ground, conserving 
moisture for the clustered, fibrous 
roots and choking out grass or 
other plant growth. Flowers on 
slender, cylindrical blunt spikes, 
three inches to a foot or more in 
length, densely crowded, the corollas 
four-lobed, with four stamens in- 
serted on the throat, and a single 
style which protrudes from the bud, 
its stigma withered before its own 
anthers are ripe, thus insuring 
cross-fertilization; calyxfour-parted, 
persistent, subtended by a small 
bract; ovary two-celled. Capsule 
a small urn or pyxis, the top 
separating transversely at about the middle; each contains five 
to sixteen seeds. When wet these seeds develop a coat of 
mucilage which helps in their distribution; they are a fre- 
quent impurity of other seeds, particularly of alsike clover. 
(Fig. 272.) 
Fic. 272.— Broad-leaved Plantain 
(Plantago major). X+. 
