Plantago aristata Michx.
Hairy annual with persistent elongated taproot. Lvs all radical but not rosulate, broadened at base with petiole ill-defined, 4-10 cm × 1-4 mm, narrow-linear, entire, pilose, sometimes sparsely so, with tuft of woolly hairs at base; main vein 1; apex acute. Scapes 10-20 cm long, terete, ± dark-villous. Spikes 3-6 cm long, cylindric. Bracts very conspicuous, to 2 cm long, linear-subulate, hairy outside; margins membranous; apex rounded to truncate. Sepals c. 3 mm long, ± broad-elliptic, pilose; margins hyaline. Corolla tube = calyx; lobes c. 2 mm long, ovate, ± reflexing. Stamens glabrous, scarcely exserted. Style densely hairy, exserted. Capsule 2.5-3 mm long, ellipsoid, 2-seeded. Seeds 2.2-2.9 mm long, ellipsoid, reddish brown, with inner surface strongly concave and hilum resembling a figure of 8.
N.: Paraparaumu (N. of Wellington), occasional elsewhere.
N. America 1940
A weed of arable land.
Allan (1940) also reported P. aristata from Weraroa (Wellington). It has been introduced elsewhere and occurs occasionally in imported crop seeds. If it still grows in N.Z., it must be very rare because it is strikingly different from any other N.Z. plantain and would therefore attract the attention of collectors.
