Plantain Family [Plantaginaceae] |
status
flower
inner
morph
petals
type
type
stem
sex
gyno-sex
dioecious
20th June 2008, Peel Castle, Isle of Man. | Photo: © RWD |
Typically deeply cut pinnate hairy leaves. Flower head is longer when in fruit as here (but shorter than those of the otherwise very similar Sea Plantain). Grows to 20cm high (shorter than Sea Plantain which grows to 30cm high) |
20th June 2008, Peel Castle, Isle of Man. | Photo: © RWD |
Some leaves are just linear like those of Sea Plantain but generally not all (some are deeply cut as bottom right) |
20th June 2008, Peel Castle, Isle of Man. | Photo: © RWD |
The hairy cut leaves and brown deadish flower spike. |
20th June 2008, Peel Castle, Isle of Man. | Photo: © RWD |
The hairy cut leaves and brown deadish flower spike. |
20th June 2008, Peel Castle, Isle of Man. | Photo: © RWD |
The hairy cut leaves. |
20th June 2008, Peel Castle, Isle of Man. | Photo: © RWD |
The linear leaves. Some leaves redden. The plants with the shorter flowering spikes are probably female only, for Buck's-horn Plantain is Gynodioecious. |
23rd Aug 2011, St. Annes on Sea, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
Flowering spike shorter than the otherwise very similar Sea Plantain. With anthers this plant is obviously hermaphroditic. |
23rd Aug 2011, St. Annes on Sea, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
Flowers with four translucent cream petals and long thin filaments with yellow anthers. Hairy stem, flower sepals pointed. |
20th June 2008, Peel Castle, Isle of Man. | Photo: © RWD |
The flowers have four straw-coloured petals. |
29th March 2011, Hilbre Island, West Kirby, Wirral. | Photo: © RWD |
Plan-view of the leaves (which are all basal, there being no stem-leaves). Leaves are deep mid-green but can also turn yellow, orange, red and purple-brown. A most strikingly decorative plant! |
29th March 2011, Hilbre Island, West Kirby, Wirral. | Photo: © RWD |
Leaves semi-succulent and most distinctively symmetrically cut into lobes, each lobe tapering to a point. Typically there are 2 to 4 or pairs of lobes, the leaf becoming ever wider at the origin for each lobe-pair. The flowers are lain flat at first (the purplish flower-heads). |
29th March 2011, Hilbre Island, West Kirby, Wirral. | Photo: © RWD |
Five purplish flower-heads to be found lying flat on this specimen, flowers not yet opened. |
29th March 2011, Hilbre Island, West Kirby, Wirral. | Photo: © RWD |
Three un-opened flower heads. They will elongate. Leaves shallowly U-shaped in cross-section with long white hairs. |
29th March 2011, Hilbre Island, West Kirby, Wirral. | Photo: © RWD |
Leaves have tiny pits (pores) over their surface and with Hydathodes at each leaf-tip to eliminate excess water and salts. Resting on the leaves are grains of sand. |
Some similarities to : Sea Plantain which also grows near the sea. But whereas Sea Plantain has hairless leaves, Buck'shorn Plantain has slightly downy leaves, and which are typically, but not always, deeply cut. Both grow near the sea.
Not to be semantically confused with : Distinguishing Feature : The plantain-like flower spike with a basal rosette of deeply-cut leaves. Buck's-horn Plantain is a low-growing plant with thick fleshy hairy leaves that are usually deeply cut, but can also have long and linear un-cut or just slightly nicked leaves. But the leaves usually all lie flat in a basal rosette, onlike those of Sea Plantain where they writhe above ground haphazardly. No relation to : any of the Water-Plantains such as Water-Plantain itself, which instead belong to the Water-Plantain Family (Alismataceae). Buck's-horn Plantain grows in sandy places inland out of reach of the tide. It is Gynodioecious, where the populations are composed of female plants and of hermaphroditic plants. This accounts for the differing appearance of some of the flowering spikes on the above photographs: the shorter spikes are probably female only (lacking anthers) whereas the longer spikes have both anthers and stigmas. The only leaves are in a basal rosette. It grows on sandy beeches and between cracks in pavements and rocks close to the sea but not within the tidal zone (although it could possibly be in the big-splash zone), and is very tolerant of trampling. This plant is gynodioecious meaning there are female plants, and bisexual plants, which accounts for some differences in the flowers on different plants. It's actual sexuallity is quite complicated with many permutations and half-way houses. See Sex
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Plantago | coronopus | ⇐ Global Aspect ⇒ | Plantaginaceae |
Plantago (Plantains) |
Plantain Family [Plantaginaceae] |