8. Plantago patagonica Jacq. (salt-and-pepper plant, Pursh plantain, Patagonian plantain)

P. patagonica var. breviscapa (Shinners) Shinners

P. patagonica var. gnaphalioides (Nutt.) A. Gray

P. patagonica var. spinulosa (Decne.) A. Gray

P. purshii Roem. & Schult.

P. spinulosa Decne.

Pl. 487 h–j; Map 2227

Plants annual or short-lived perennial, with taproots and later sometimes a short, sometimes branched rootstock. Aerial stems absent or very short and inconspicuous (to 4 cm long with age), then unbranched. Leaves in a dense basal rosette (aerial stem leaves alternate but crowded), sessile or with a short, poorly differentiated petiole, ascending. Leaf blades 2–15(–20) cm long, 1–7(–12) mm wide, linear or narrowly oblanceolate (those of seedlings and overwintering rosettes sometimes narrowly obovate), angled or tapered to a sharply pointed tip, long-tapered at the base, the margins entire, hairy, the surfaces moderately to more commonly densely woolly- and/or silky-hairy, appearing uniformly gray, with 1 main vein. Inflorescences 1 to several per plant, terminal, elongate spikes, 2–15 cm long, 7–11 mm in diameter (not including the bracts), densely flowered (the axis not visible between the flowers), the stalk (1–)5–20(–26) cm long, hairy, the axis solid. Lowermost bracts 4–10(–14) mm long, the other bracts 1–5 mm long, progressively shorter toward the spike tip, only the lowermost few to several sometimes extending past the flowers, variously lanceolate triangular with translucent marginal bands and a thickened midnerve to linear above a short, inconspicuous, translucent pair of basal wings, angled to long-tapered at the tip (this loosely ascending to somewhat arched in elongate bracts), densely hairy on both surfaces. Cleistogamous flowers usually abundant. Calyces deeply 4-lobed, 1.4–2.5 mm long, slightly zygomorphic, the lobes narrowly oblong-obovate to obovate, rounded at the tip, the upper pair with somewhat broader, papery margins than the lower pair. Corollas zygomorphic, the lobes 1.2–2.2 mm long, broadly ovate to nearly circular with a shallowly cordate base, rounded to very bluntly pointed at the tip, the margins entire, the surfaces often appearing finely wrinkled, each with an inconspicuous brown base, otherwise white to somewhat translucent, the upper lobe slightly shorter than the others and ascending at flowering, the other lobes spreading, spreading to reflexed after flowering. Stamens 4, the anthers horned. Fruits 3.0–3.5 mm long, ellipsoid to ovoid, circumscissile at or just below the midpoint. Seeds usually 2 per fruit, 2.0–2.8 mm long, oblong-elliptic, the surface deeply concave on 1 side, otherwise finely pitted, reddish brown, lighter in the concave portion. 2n=20. May–August.

Uncommon in the southwestern and northwestern portions of the state, introduced sporadically farther east (western U.S. east to Wisconsin, Indiana, Missouri, and Texas; Canada, Mexico, South America; introduced farther east in the U.S.). Upland prairies, loess hill prairies, and glades; also old quarries, railroads, roadsides, and open, sandy, disturbed areas.

Some authors (Steyermark, 1963; McGregor and Brooks, 1986; Gleason and Cronquist, 1991) have recognized plants with longer bracts as var. spinulosa and dwarf plants have been called var. breviscapa. However, Rahn (1978) thought these differences to be unremarkable in the context of overall morphological variation across the very large geographic range of the species.