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| Scientific Name: | Plantago coronopus | ![]() Buck's Horn Plantain |
General Description: | Low growing rosetted plant with distinctively shaped leaves. Narrow cylindrical flowerhead at the end of a stalk. Flowers mainly during spring and summer but can flower throughout the year. | |
Further Details: | Perennial plant with leaves arising from a rosette base.The leaves are lobed or toothed and they can be hairless or hairy (sometimes velvety). The tiny flowers are in a cylindrical spike up to 10 cm long, at the end of a hairy stalk. | |
Soils: | Survives in many soil types from sandy through to loams and clays. Can tolerate waterlogging for part of the year. | |
Habitat and Notes: | Generally found in more settled areas but can colonize disturbed areas, especially where there is higher rainfall. Grows in the cooler months and often dies off in the summer. Browsed by livestock. In the areas of heavy grazing it may form tiny plants. This species is a good indicator of saline soils. In soils of low salinity it exhibits a dull, grey-green colouration compared to its normal colouration in non-saline soils. In highly saline soils it has a red colour. |
![]() Buck's Horn Plantain | ![]() Buck's Horn Plantain flower | ![]() Buck's Horn Plantain - plant |