Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
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Plantago major
Large plantain, Greater Plantain
Plantaginaceae
Moist pasture and moist, often disturbed sites including along streams and seepage lines. Widespread.
Introduced short lived perennial herb with a mostly adventitious root system. Flower stalks to 0.4 m high, hairy with short hairs. Leaves in a basal rosette, mostly 4-22 cm long, 20-120 mm wide, hairy to hairless, with 5-7 longitudinal veins, margins entire or with a few blunt teeth, tips pointed to rounded. Leaf stalks about the same length as the leaf blades, and easily differentiated from them. Flowers tubular, the tube 2–2.5 mm long, with 4 lobes 1.5–2 mm long, spreading or turned down. Sepals 2-2.5 mm long. Sepal-like bracts just beneath the flowers 2.5–3 mm long. Flowers in cylindrical spikes about 80-250 mm long, dense except near the base. Flowers Spring to Autumn.
PlantNET description: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Plantago~major (accessed 1 February, 2021)
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