Citation: L., Sp. Pl. 115 (1753).

Synonymy: Not Applicable

Common name: Buckshorn plantain.

Description:
Annual or short-lived perennials with leaves in a basal rosette from a tough rootstock with a pronounced tap root; leaves sessile, oblanceolate to linear, 2-25 (rarely 35) x 0.3-4 cm, acute, usually pinnatisect with linear lobes, rarely bipinnatisect or entire, with 1 main vein, pubescent to glabrescent with spreading long hairs.

Spike narrowly cylindrical, 1-5 rarely 0.3-12 cm long, compact; peduncle 2-30 cm rarely longer, terete usually densely covered with antrorse hairs, with flowers either borne well above or at the level of the apices of the leaves; bracts ovate, acute or acuminate, with membranous margins; sepals elliptic, 2-3 mm long, unequal with inner ones strongly folded, ciliate, with a membranous often very narrow margin; corolla tube c. 1.5 mm long, pubescent; lobes lanceolate, c. 1 mm long; anthers almost orbicular, c. 1.5 mm long; ovary 2- later 4 or 5-celled by outgrowths of the placenta with 1 ovule in each cell.

Seeds 1-5, coffee-bean-shaped to almost globular, c. 1 mm long, rough.

Conservation status: naturalised Flowering time: No flowering time is available

SA Distribution Map based on current data relating to specimens held in the State Herbarium of South Australia

Biology: No text

Taxonomic notes: Since the species is very variable with environmental conditions it is not always easy to distinguish the 2 subspecies by quantitative characters. Subsp. commutata is, however, usually recognised by its smooth spikes with tightly appressed flowers and bracts.

Author: Not yet available