Fruits/Seeds
A black to brown seed pod, 3 – 4 mm long contains 1 – 2 yellow to pale brown seeds.
A tussock-like, rosette plant. Tussock size up to 30 cm high and wide with a flower stalk up to 1 m high.
Long, sword-shaped and forming a clump. Each individual leaf is 8 – 20 cm long and 1 – 3 cm wide and usually stands upright. There are 5 veins running down each leaf.
Small and initially cream, but turn brown rapidly. They grow on top of a ridged, 1 m high flower stem growing from the centre of the tussock of leaves. The flowers form a tight, cylindrical cluster which is 1 – 7 cm long.
A black to brown seed pod, 3 – 4 mm long contains 1 – 2 yellow to pale brown seeds.
First fully open single flower
Full flowering (record all days)
End of flowering (when 95% of the flowers have faded)
Variable Plantain (Plantago varia) leaves usually have a toothed or jagged edge (not smooth like the Ribwort Plantain) and there is a dense tuft of reddish-brown hairs at the base of each leaf. Its flower stem can be shorter, only growing to a height of about 36 cm.