Plantago lanceolata

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Ribwort plantain
Ribwort 600.jpg
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Lamiales
Family: Plantaginaceae
Genus: Plantago
Species:
P. lanceolata
Binomial name
Plantago lanceolata
L.

Plantago lanceolata is a species of flowering plant in the plantain family Plantaginaceae. It is known by the common names ribwort plantain, [1] narrowleaf plantain, [2] English plantain, [3] ribleaf,[ citation needed ]lamb's tongue, and buckhorn. [4] It is a common weed on cultivated or disturbed land.

Contents

Description

Plantago lanceolata (Japan) Plantago lanceolata P6200323 Bi Da Xie Zi , heraoobako.jpg
Plantago lanceolata (Japan)

The plant is a rosette-forming perennial herb, with leafless, silky, hairy flower stems (10–40 cm or 3.9–15.7 in). The basal leaves are lanceolate spreading or erect, scarcely toothed with 3-5 strong parallel veins narrowed to a short petiole. The flower stalk is deeply furrowed, ending in an ovoid inflorescence of many small flowers each with a pointed bract. [5] :248 Each inflorescence can produce up to two hundred seeds. Flowers are 4 millimetres (0.16 in) (calyx green, corolla brownish), 4 bent back lobes with brown midribs and long white stamens. It is native to temperate Eurasia, widespread throughout the British Isles, but scarce on the most acidic soils (pH < 4.5). It is present and widespread in the Americas and Australia as an introduced species.

Distribution

Plantago lanceolata is native to Eurasia, but has been introduced to North America and many other parts of the world with suitable habitats.[ citation needed ]

History

Inflorescence Plantago lanceolata - Kulna.jpg
Inflorescence
Infructescence Galled head of a Plantain.JPG
Infructescence

Considered to be an indicator of agriculture in pollen diagrams, P. lanceolata has been found in western Norway from the Early Neolithic onwards, which is considered an indicator of grazing in that area at the time. [6] This would make sense, as P. lanceolata thrives in open fields where livestock are frequently disturbing the ground.

Uses

Plantago lanceolata is used frequently in herbal teas and other herbal remedies. [7] A tea from the leaves is used as a cough medicine. In the traditional Austrian medicine Plantago lanceolata leaves have been used internally (as syrup or tea) or externally (fresh leaves) for treatment of disorders of the respiratory tract, skin, insect bites, and infections. [8] The leaves can be eaten when very young. [9]

Songbirds eat the seeds, and the leaves are eaten by rabbits. [10]

Chemistry

Plantago lanceolata contains phenylethanoids such as acteoside (verbascoside), cistanoside F, lavandulifolioside, plantamajoside and isoacteoside. [11] It also contains the iridoid glycosides aucubin and catalpol. [12] These iridoid glycosides make the plant inedible to some herbivores, but others are unperturbed by them—for example, the buckeye butterfly Junonia coenia , whose larvae eat the leaves of P. lanceolata and ingest the iridoid glycosides to make themselves unpalatable to predators.

Habitat

Plantago lanceolata can live anywhere from very dry meadows to places similar to a rain forest, [13] but it does best in open, disturbed areas. It is therefore common near roadsides where other plants cannot flourish; it grows tall if it can do so, but in frequently-mowed areas it adopts a flat growth habit instead. Historically, the plant has thrived in areas where ungulates graze and turn up the earth with their hooves.

Reproduction

The mode of reproduction can vary among populations of P. lanceolata. [14] Reproduction occurs sexually, with the pollen being wind dispersed for the most part, though the plant is occasionally pollinated by bees. [14] P. lanceolata cannot reproduce asexually in the way that many other species of Plantago can; instead, it is an obligate outcrosser.

Enemies

Insect predation

Plantago lanceolata is host to many different species of the order Lepidoptera. Species such as Junonia coenia, Spilosoma congrua, and Melitaea cinxia lay their eggs on P. lanceolata plants so they can serve as a food source for the larvae when they hatch. [15] [16] The iridoid glycosides in the plant leaves accumulate in the caterpillars and make them unpalatable to predators.

Infection by powdery mildew

Podosphaera plantaginis is a powdery mildew fungus that infects P. lanceolata. All of the P. lanceolata populations are infected by several strains of this powdery mildew fungus. [17] Once the populations are infected, the symptoms are minimal at first. Then, after a few weeks or months lesions start to appear covering the entire surface of the leaves and the stem, making it very noticeable. [13] Another species that infects P. lanceolata is Golovinomyces sordidus . Both of these mildews are obligate biotrophs, meaning that they can only infect living tissue. They cover the surface of the leaves and extend hyphae into the cell matrix in order to extract nutrients.

Resistance to powdery mildew

After the populations are infected, they react in different ways. Some populations of P. lanceolata are more susceptible to different strains of powdery mildew. Also, some populations have multiple resistance phenotypes where on the other hand, others may only have one resistance phenotype. [13] Overall, the populations that have the highest variety of resistance phenotypes will have the highest survival rates particularly when rates of infection are high. [13]

Children use the plant in a game where the flower's head is "shot" off the end of stalk; it has alternately been called "1 o'clock gun", "rifle", among others names. To play the game, one would pluck a stalk and wrap a loop of the distal end of the stem around the section of stem closest to the flower's head. The loop is tightened so it stops up behind the flower's head and the stem is pulled backward until the flower head pops off. The stalk is slightly elastic so when the flower head separates, it (the head) flies off in the direction the stalk is pointed like a gun, hence the gun-related names given to it. [18] [19]

In Edinburgh, Scotland this game is called ‘The 1 o’clock gun’ after the gun that fires everyday from Edinburgh Castle. Writer Sean Michael Wilson notes that: "When I was a kid in Edinburgh we used it for a cute wee game called ‘The 1 o’clock gun’ - we twisted the stalk around into a kind of noose, quickly pulled it (with the left hand pulling back sharply and the right hand moving forward) and then the head of the stalk would go shooting off. Piitttt!! We used to see how far we could get it to go - great fun."[ citation needed ] In the West Country of England the same game is called 'cannonballs'. Another game played with the plant in Britain and Ireland is a variation of conkers; a child tries to knock off the flowerhead of their friendly rival's stalk using their own stalk with a fast downward thrust. This pastime is known vernacularly as 'dongers' in Kent and 'Carl doddies' (along with the plant itself) in Scotland. [20]

Related Research Articles

<i>Plantago</i> Genus of flowering plants in the plantain family Plantaginaceae

Plantago is a genus of about 200 species of flowering plants in the family Plantaginaceae, commonly called plantains or fleaworts. The common name plantain is shared with the unrelated cooking plantain. Most are herbaceous plants, though a few are subshrubs growing to 60 centimetres tall.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chamomile</span> Common name for several daisy-like plants

Chamomile or camomile is the common name for several daisy-like plants of the family Asteraceae. Two of the species, Matricaria chamomilla and Chamaemelum nobile, are commonly used to make herbal infusions for beverages. There has been limited research as to whether consuming chamomile in foods or beverages is effective in treating medical conditions, although in Hungarian it is referred to as the "king of herbs".

<i>Lamium purpureum</i> Species of flowering plant

Lamium purpureum, known as red dead-nettle, purple dead-nettle, or purple archangel, is an annual herbaceous flowering plant native to Europe and Asia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Powdery mildew</span> Fungal plant disease

Powdery mildew is a fungal disease that affects a wide range of plants. Powdery mildew diseases are caused by many different species of ascomycete fungi in the order Erysiphales. Powdery mildew is one of the easier plant diseases to identify, as its symptoms are quite distinctive. Infected plants display white powdery spots on the leaves and stems. The lower leaves are the most affected, but the mildew can appear on any above-ground part of the plant. As the disease progresses, the spots get larger and denser as large numbers of asexual spores are formed, and the mildew may spread up and down the length of the plant.

<i>Alisma plantago-aquatica</i> Species of plant

Alisma plantago-aquatica, also known as European water-plantain, common water-plantain or mad-dog weed, is a perennial flowering aquatic plant widespread across most of Europe and Asia, and apparently spread elsewhere in both the Old and New World.

<i>Junonia coenia</i> Species of insect (butterfly)

Junonia coenia, known as the common buckeye or buckeye, is a butterfly in the family Nymphalidae. Its range covers much of North America and some of Central America, including most of the eastern half of the US, the lower to middle Midwest, the Southwest, southern Canada, and Mexico. Its habitat is open areas with low vegetation and some bare ground. Its original ancestry has been traced to Africa, which then experiences divergence in Asia. The species Junonia grisea, the gray buckeye, is found west of the Rocky Mountains and was formerly a subspecies of Junonia coenia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glanville fritillary</span> Species of butterfly

The Glanville fritillary is a butterfly of the family Nymphalidae. It is named for the naturalist who discovered it and the checkerboard pattern on its wings. These butterflies live in almost all of Europe, especially Finland, and in parts of northwest Africa. They are absent from the far north of Europe and parts of the Iberian Peninsula. To the east they are found across the Palearctic.

<i>Uncinula necator</i> Species of fungus

Uncinula necator is a fungus that causes powdery mildew of grape. It is a common pathogen of Vitis species, including the wine grape, Vitis vinifera. The fungus is believed to have originated in North America. European varieties of Vitis vinifera are more or less susceptible to this fungus. Uncinula necator infects all green tissue on the grapevine, including leaves and young berries. It can cause crop loss and poor wine quality if untreated. The sexual stage of this pathogen requires free moisture to release ascospores from its cleistothecia in the spring. However, free moisture is not needed for secondary spread via conidia; high atmospheric humidity is sufficient. Its anamorph is called Oidium tuckeri.

<i>Plantago major</i> Species of flowering plant in the plantain family Plantaginaceae

Plantago major, the broadleaf plantain, white man's footprint, waybread, or greater plantain, is a species of flowering plant in the plantain family Plantaginaceae. The plant is native to Eurasia.

<i>Lamium album</i> Species of flowering plant

Lamium album, commonly called white nettle or white dead-nettle, is a flowering plant in the family Lamiaceae. It is native throughout Europe and Asia, growing in a variety of habitats from open grassland to woodland, generally on moist, fertile soils.

<i>Equisetum arvense</i> Species of horsetail

Equisetum arvense, the field horsetail or common horsetail, is an herbaceous perennial plant in the Equisetidae (horsetails) sub-class, native throughout the arctic and temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. It has separate sterile non-reproductive and fertile spore-bearing stems growing from a perennial underground rhizomatous stem system. The fertile stems are produced in early spring and are non-photosynthetic, while the green sterile stems start to grow after the fertile stems have wilted and persist through the summer until the first autumn frosts. It is sometimes confused with mare's tail, Hippuris vulgaris.

<i>Erysiphe cruciferarum</i> Species of fungus

Erysiphe cruciferarum is a plant pathogen of the family Erysiphaceae, which causes the main powdery mildew of crucifers, including on Brassica crops, such as cauliflower, cabbage, broccoli, and Brussels sprouts. E. cruciferarum is distributed worldwide, and is of particular concentration in continental Europe and the Indian subcontinent. E. cruciferarum is an ascomycete fungus that has both sexual and asexual stages. It is also an obligate parasite that appears to have host specificity; for example, isolates from turnip will not infect Brussels sprout, and vice versa. While being a part of the family Erysiphaceae, it belongs to those members in which the conidia are formed singly and whose haustoria are multilobed.

<i>Podosphaera leucotricha</i> Species of fungus

Podosphaera leucotricha is a plant pathogen that can cause powdery mildew of apples and pears.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Catalpol</span> Chemical compound

Catalpol is an iridoid glucoside. This natural product falls in the class of iridoid glycosides, which are simply monoterpenes with a glucose molecule attached.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Verbascoside</span> Chemical compound

Verbascoside is a caffeoyl phenylethanoid glycoside in which the phenylpropanoid caffeic acid and the phenylethanoid hydroxytyrosol form an ester and an ether bond respectively, to the rhamnose part of a disaccharide, namely β-(3′,4′-dihydroxyphenyl)ethyl-O-α-L-rhamnopyranosyl(1→3)-β-D-(4-O-caffeoyl)-glucopyranoside.

<i>Castilleja levisecta</i> Species of flowering plant

Castilleja levisecta is a rare species of flowering plant in the family Orobanchaceae known by the common name golden paintbrush, or golden Indian paintbrush, listed under the Endangered Species Act in 1997. It is native to British Columbia and Washington, where it is known from eleven remaining populations. It occurred in Oregon but all natural occurrences there have been extirpated. It has been reintroduced to a few areas in Oregon, but it remains to be seen if the plants will survive. The plant is a federally listed endangered species of Canada and was listed as threatened in the United States in 1997. On June 30, 2021, the plant was proposed for delisting due to recovery. Effective August 18, 2023, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued a rule removing golden paintbrush from the Federal List of Endangered and Threatened Plants

<i>Plantago princeps</i> Species of flowering plant in the plantain family Plantaginaceae

Plantago princeps is a rare species of flowering plant in the plantain family known by the common name ale. It is endemic to Hawaii, where it is known from the islands of Hawaii, Kauai, Oahu, Molokai, and Maui. Like other Hawaiian Plantago, it is known as kuahiwi laukahi, or laukahi kuahiwi. It is a federally listed endangered species of the United States.

<i>Plantago rugelii</i> Species of flowering plant in the plantain family Plantaginaceae

Plantago rugelii is an edible species of flowering plant in the plantain family, Plantaginaceae. It is native to North America, where it occurs in eastern Canada and the central and eastern United States. Its common names include American plantain, blackseed plantain, pale plantain, and Rugel's plantain. The species name rugelii honors Ferdinand Ignatius Xavier Rugel (1806-1879), a German-born botanist and pharmacist.

<i>Plantago cordata</i> Species of flowering plant in the plantain family Plantaginaceae

Plantago cordata is a species of flowering plant in the plantain family known by the common name heartleaf plantain. It is native to eastern North America, where it is distributed throughout eastern Canada and the eastern United States. Though it has a wide distribution, it is very localized, and populations have declined almost everywhere.

<i>Plantago virginica</i> Species of flowering plant

Plantago virginica, common names hoary plantain and Virginia plantain, is a species of plant native to North America and introduced in Asia. It is listed as a special concern in Connecticut. The Kiowa use it to make garlands or wreaths for old men to wear around their heads during ceremonial dances as a symbol of health. It is commonly found within the continental United States in the majority of states along coastal areas and on roads, though has become an invasive species to eastern China after its introduction c. 1980. It is an annual plant, blooming around the month of May.

References

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