Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
Plantago coronopus
Common name
Buck's-horn plaintain
Family
Plantaginaceae
Where found
Weed of roadsides and disturbed sites.
subsp. commutata: Canberra and Sydney. Tablelands south of Goulburn and east of the ACT. Occasionally coastal south from Merimbula
subsp. coronopus: Canberra. Tablelands east and north of the ACT. Coastal north from Shellharbour.
Notes
Introduced annual or perennial herb with a persistent taproot. Flower stalks to 0.45 m tall, densely hairy. Leaves in a basal rosette, 1-30 cm long, 5-20 mm wide, hairy to hairless, margins dissected or deeply toothed or rarely entire, with 1 longitudinal vein. Flowers tubular, the tube 1–1.5 mm long, with 4 lobes 0.8–1 mm long, spreading or turned back. Sepals 2.3-3 mm long. Sepal-like bracts just beneath the flowers 1.5–3.5 mm long. Flower spikes oval, 8-120 mm long. Flowers Spring to Summer.
subsp. commutata: Flower stalks stout, usually 1.3–2.3 mm in diameter, shorter than or equal to leaves. Spike very dense, flowers appressed to the axis and closely overlapping each other.
subsp. coronopus: Flower stalks slender, 0.5–1.8 mm in diameter, mostly longer than the leaves. Spike dense, flowers often spreading.
PlantNET description: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Plantago~coronopus (accessed 1 February, 2021)
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