Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
Plantago glacialis
Common name
Small star plantain
Family
Plantaginaceae
Where found
Alpine herbfields and cold seepage sites below snow patches. Kosciusko plateau above 2000 m altitude.
Notes
Perennial herb with adventitious roots. Often forming compact colonies. Leaves fleshy. Flower stalks to 0.05 m high, shorter than or about equal to the leaves, glossy, hairless or with sparse long hairs, with the remains of old leaves towards the base. Leaves in a basal rosette, 1-7 cm long, 1–18 mm wide, with 1 longitudinal vein, thick, glossy, hairless or with some hairs on the margins, rarely hairy on the upper surface, margins entire or with a few inconspicuous teeth, tips blunt. Flowers tubular, the tube 1.5–2 mm long, with 4 lobes 0.7–1.2 mm long, spreading. Sepals 2–2.2 mm long. Sepal-like bracts just beneath the flowers 1.5–3 mm long, dark brown, conspicuously keeled. Flowers in small heads about 2.5-6.5 mm long, of 1–5 flowers. Flowering: January–March
Endangered Vic.
PlantNET description: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Plantago~glacialis (accessed 1 February, 2021)
This identification key and fact sheets are available as a free mobile application:
