Biology:Plantago coronopus

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Short description: Species of flowering plant in the family Plantaginaceae

Plantago coronopus
Plantago coronopus Sturm64.jpg
Scientific classification edit
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.

Plantago coronopus, the buck's-horn plantain,[2] is a herbaceous annual to perennial flowering plant in the family Plantaginaceae. Other common names in the US and Italy include minutina and erba stella.[3]

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.[4] 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,[3] 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, http://www.theplantlist.org/tpl1.1/record/kew-2571444, retrieved 4 March 2016 
  2. (xls) BSBI List 2007, Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland, https://bsbi.org/download/3542/, retrieved 2014-10-17 
  3. 3.0 3.1 Coleman, E. (1999), Four-Season Harvest: Organic Vegetables from Your Home Garden All Year Long (second ed.), Chelsea Green Publishing, ISBN 978-1890132279 
  4. "Online atlas of the British and Irish flora: Plantago coronopus". Biological Records Centre and Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland. https://www.brc.ac.uk/plantatlas/plant/plantago-coronopus. 

External links

Wikidata ☰ Q164030 entry