Sea Plantain - Plantago maritima
- Family: Plantain (Plantaginaceae family) [E-flora]
- Other Names: Seaside Plantain, Goose-tongue. [PCBC] Alaska Plantain; Common Plantain. [E-flora] California goose tongue [PFAF]
Description
"Plantago maritima is a PERENNIAL growing to 0.2 m (0ft 8in) by 0.2 m (0ft 8in)."
"It is hardy to zone (UK) 6 and is not frost tender. It is in flower from Jun to August, and the seeds ripen from Aug to September. The flowers are hermaphrodite (have both male and female organs) and are pollinated by Wind. The plant is self-fertile."
"It is noted for attracting wildlife."
"Suitable for: light (sandy), medium (loamy) and heavy (clay) soils and prefers well-drained soil. Suitable pH: acid, neutral and basic (alkaline) soils and can grow in saline soils."
"It cannot grow in the shade. It prefers moist soil. The plant can tolerate maritime exposure." [PFAF]
Subtaxa present in B.C.
- Plantago maritima ssp. juncoides. [E-flora]
- General: "Perennial (rarely annual) herb from a sometimes woolly, short-branched crown and a taproot; stems ascending to erect, several, simple or rarely short branched, smooth or spreading-hairy, 5-25 cm tall." [IFBC-E-flora]
- Leaves: "Basal leaves lanceolate or more often linear, 12-22 cm long, tapering gradually into the winged stalks, entire or irregularly short-toothed, smooth or slightly hairy, 3- to 5 (7)-veined; stem leaves lacking." [IFBC-E-flora]
- Flowers: "Inflorescence of dense or lax, bracteate spikes, 2-10 cm long; corollas greenish, hairy outside, 4-lobed, the lobes 1-1.5 mm long, spreading; bracts broadly egg-shaped, shorter than the flowers, minutely fringed; stamens conspicuous." [IFBC-E-flora]
- Fruits: "Capsules, egg-shaped to broadly conic, 3-4 mm long; seeds 2-4, ellipsoid, about 2 mm long, brown or black, flat on the inner surface."[IFBC-E-flora]
- Origin Status: Native [E-flora]
- Habitat: Salt marshes and coastal beaches in the lowland zone.[IFBC-E-flora] Short turf in salt marshes near the sea and by streams in mountains, usually in saline or wet soils[17]. [PFAF]
- Range: "Common along the coast, rare inland in NW BC (Mess Lake Mineral Springs); coastal N America and S America." [IFBC-E-flora] "Western Europe, including Britain, from Scandanavia south and east to Spain, Hungary and Russia."[PFAF]
Edible Uses
- Aerial parts traded by a small southern-Swedish foraging enterprise, which is also the main provider of wild food plants at the restaurant NOMA, in Copenhagen. [Tardio MWEP]
- Young Leaves: Salty-flavored leaves of P. maritima and P. macrocarpa were eaten. Harvested in early summer, the tender young leaves are eaten raw or boiled as greens. Often mixed with marine mammal or fish grease, and today, are jarred for winter use.[Turner, Kuhnlein] "Young leaves - raw or cooked[2, 61, 105, 183]. A delicious flavour[172]. This is one of the nicer-tasting members of the genus, the leaves are fairly low in fibres and make an acceptable addition to a mixed salad[K]. The leaves are canned for winter use in Alaska[183]."[PFAF] Acadians eat Plantago maritima (seaside plantain) [SER TMR]
- Seed: "Seed - raw or cooked. The seed can be ground into a powder and used as a flour extender[172]. The seed is very small and tedious to harvest[172]."[PFAF]
Medicinal Uses
- External Use: P. maritima is "A wound herb, according to Gerard, “such an excellent wound herbe, that it presently closeth or shutteth up a wound, though it be very great and large”." [DPL Watts] "Though Plantago coronopus has shared in the Isle of Man2 the reputation of the genus more generally for staunching cuts and wounds, as P. maritima Linnaeus has in Cork,3..." [MPFT]
- Laxative: "Plantain seeds contain up to 30% mucilage which swells up in the gut, acting as a bulk laxative and soothing irritated membranes[238]. Sometimes the seed husks are used without the seeds[238]." [PFAF]
Cultivation
- Cultivation: "Succeeds in any moderately fertile soil in a sunny position[200]. An important food plant for the caterpillars of many species of butterflies[30]."[PFAF]
- Propagation: "Seed - sow spring in a cold frame. When they are large enough to handle, prick the seedlings out into individual pots and plant them out in early summer. A sowing can be made outdoors in situ in mid to late spring if you have enough seeds."[PFAF]
- "Many salt-resistant plants belong to the Chenodopodiaceae, Juncaceae or Cyperaceae, and thus to nonmycorrhizal plant families. On the other hand, the sea plantains (Plantago maritima, P. coronopus) are mycorrhizal, and in the case of the salt aster, Aster tripolium, almost every root shows a fungal structure (Landwehr et al. 2002)." [SoilBio-19]
References
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Sunday, July 14, 2019 5:12 PM
