Ribwort Plantain - Plantago lanceolata

Description

Low to medium plant with several leaf rosettes. Leaves linear lanceolate to lanceolate, slightly toothed or untoothed, 3 to 5 veined, strongly ribbed and stalked. Flowers brown, 4 mm in short blackish spikes on ridged stalks, exceeding the leaves, anthers pale yellow.

Identification difficulty
Habitat

Roadsides, meadows, waste ground.

When to see it

April to October.

Life History

Perennial.

UK Status

Very common throughout Britain.

VC55 Status

Very common in Leicestershire and Rutland. In the 1979 Flora survey of Leicestershire it was found in 599 of the 617 tetrads.

Leicestershire & Rutland Map

MAP KEY:

Yellow squares = NBN records (all known data)
Coloured circles = NatureSpot records: 2020+ | 2015-2019 | pre-2015

UK Map

Species profile

Common names
Ribwort Plantain
Species group:
Wildflowers
Kingdom:
Plantae
Order:
Lamiales
Family:
Plantaginaceae
Records on NatureSpot:
620
First record:
21/09/1998 (Anthony Fletcher)
Last record:
20/03/2024 (Pugh, Dylan)

Total records by month

% of records within its species group

10km squares with records

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Photo of the association

Phytomyza plantaginis

The larva of the fly Phytomyza plantaginis mines the leaves of various Plantain species including Ribwort Plantain producing a long, linear, whitish narrow mine; normally in the leaf, but sometimes in the stem. The pupa is formed at the end of the mine and in the lower surface of the leaf.