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Electronic Flora of South Australia species Fact Sheet

Family: Plantaginaceae
Plantago gaudichaudii

Citation: Barnéoud, Monogr. Plantag. 15 (1845).

Synonymy: Plantago varia

Common name: Narrow-leaved plantain.

Description:
Perennial herbs with leaves in a rosette from a stout basal tap root, with fine brown hairs at the base of the leaves; leaves with an indistinct petiole or a long cuneate base up to 4 cm long, linear or linear-oblanceolate, 8-28 x 0.3-0.7 cm (20-40 times longer than broad), acute, entire or with few widely spaced blunt teeth, glabrescent with mainly long hairs when young, usually blackish-brown when dried.

Spikes cylindrical, 2-10 cm long, compact or sometimes some fruit widely spaced at the base; peduncle 5-30 cm long, terete, usually sparsely covered with appressed, rarely spreading hairs, with lower flowers borne at the level of or just above the leaf apices; bracts ovate, lower ones longer than or as long as the sepals; sepals elliptic-oblong, 2.5-3.5 mm long, subequal, glabrous to hairy with cilia on the membranous margin; corolla tube 2-3.5 mm long; lobes ovate, 1.5-2.5 mm long; anthers oblong, c. 2 mm long; ovary 2-celled, 1 with 2 ovules and the other with 3 but the upper one separated by a swelling of the placenta.

Capsule ellipsoid, 3-4 mm long; seeds 1-5, compressed-ellipsoid, c. 2 mm long, granulate.

image of FSA3_Plantago_gau.jpg Habit.
Image source: fig. 615B in Jessop J.P. & Toelken H.R. (Ed.) 1986. Flora of South Australia (4th edn).

Distribution:  S.Aust.: FR, EA, EP, NL, MU, YP, SL, SE.   Qld; N.S.W.; Vic.; Tas.

Conservation status: native

Flowering time: Aug. — Oct., rarely Nov.


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

Biology: P. gaudichaudii is characterised by its long narrow leaves (20-40 times longer than broad) and they are usually glabrous, or if pubescent then with hairs of mainly equal length particularly on the lower leaf surface. Intergrades into P. varia sometimes occur but they have usually shorter leaves (5-8 cm long) and often have been recorded together with some plants of P. gaudichaudii.

Author: Not yet available


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