Buck's-horn plantain
Plantago coronopus
Family · Plantaginaceae · Harmless
The cut-leaved rosette that grows flat against the ground on sands, salty verges and pavement joints. It is sold in Italy as a gourmet vegetable, and here it gets trodden on unnoticed.
Dunes and sand · Roadsides and waste ground · Fields and pasture · Walls and rocks
Also known asminutina, erba stella
How to tell it
A flat symmetrical rosette with narrow leaves cut into side teeth like a comb or a bird's foot. Short thin spikes on prostrate stalks. It tolerates salt and trampling like almost nothing else.
What it is confused with
Ribwort plantain
Plantago lanceolata
Ribwort has a smooth entire leaf and grows more upright; buck's-horn has a comb-cut leaf and lies flat.
What it is for
Young leaves in salad, crunchy and slightly salty, common in Italy and southern France. Gather away from road verges, because of dust and herbicides.
Traditionally used as food. This is not permission to eat it.
Where it occurs
Each square is an area with recorded observations of this plant. The lighter background is the set of areas where any of the entries has been observed, and serves as a reference. Note what this is not: it is not where the plant lives, it is where people record it, so trails and towns always look fuller than the mountains. Data from GBIF.
Sources
Community
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