Plantago coronopus
| 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] | |
| |
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
[edit]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
[edit]- ^ The Plant List: A Working List of All Plant Species, retrieved 4 March 2016
- ^ BSBI List 2007 (xls). Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland. Archived from the original (xls) on 2015-06-26. Retrieved 2014-10-17.
- ^ a b Coleman, E. (1999), Four-Season Harvest: Organic Vegetables from Your Home Garden All Year Long (second ed.), Chelsea Green Publishing, ISBN 978-1890132279
- ^ "Online atlas of the British and Irish flora: Plantago coronopus". Biological Records Centre and Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland. Retrieved 5 June 2019.
External links
[edit]
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