May 30, 2005

Ribwort Plantain


Over the last thirty years, I could vouch for this plant's effectiveness for swishing flies, teasing kittens and bugging siblings. And I never knew what it was called until a few weeks ago, when it dawned on me to look up the name. It's called a Ribwort Plantain (plantago lanceolata).

Posted by Monasette at May 30, 2005 01:06 AM
Comments

I was wondering that myself. I bought that little wildflowers book (you know the one with illustrations rather than pictures, never even looked for it! Ah well..

Posted by: Sean McCormack at May 30, 2005 04:08 AM

It's also got loads of medicinal properties

http://www.magdalin.com/herbal/plants_pages/p/plantain_ribwort.htm

Posted by: Sean McCormack at May 30, 2005 04:11 AM

A hardy plant, it thrived in the ruts left by wagon wheels - and when the wagons hit America and headed West, plantain went with them: the native Americans called it "the white man's footprint".

Posted by: Tony Mulqueen at May 30, 2005 09:38 AM