Plantago coronopus

Plantago coronopus, the buck's-horn plantain,[2] is a herbaceous annual to perennial flowering plant in the family Plantaginaceae. Other common names include minutina and erba stella.

Plantago coronopus
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Lamiales
Family: Plantaginaceae
Genus: Plantago
Species:
P. coronopus
Binomial name
Plantago coronopus
Synonyms[1]
  • Arnoglossum subulatum Gray
  • Asterogeum laciniatum Gray
  • Coronopus vulgaris Fourr.

Description

Plantago coronopus produces a basal rosette of narrowly lance-shaped leaves up to 25 centimeters long that are toothed or deeply divided. The inflorescences grow erect to about 4 to 7 cm in height. They have dense spikes of flowers which sometimes curve. Each flower has four whitish lobes each measuring about a millimeter long. Plantago coronopus mainly grows on sandy or gravelly soils close to the sea, but also on salt-treated roadsides.[3] It is native to Eurasia and North Africa but it can be found elsewhere, including the United States, Australia, and New Zealand as an introduced species.

It is grown as a leaf vegetable known as erba stella,[4] mostly incorporated in salad mixes for specialty markets. Recently it has become popular as a frost-hardy winter crop for farmers in northern climates, and is usually grown in unheated hightunnels.

References
  1. The Plant List: A Working List of All Plant Species, retrieved 4 March 2016
  2. "BSBI List 2007". Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland. Archived from the original (xls) on 2015-01-25. Retrieved 2014-10-17.
  3. "Online atlas of the British and Irish flora: Plantago coronopus". Biological Records Centre and Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland. Retrieved 5 June 2019.
  4. Coleman, E. (1999), Four-Season Harvest: Organic Vegetables from Your Home Garden All Year Long (second ed.), Chelsea Green Publishing, ISBN 978-1890132279
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