1. Plantago aristata Michx. (bracted plantain, buckhorn)

Pl. 486 i, j; Map 2220

Plants annual, with taproots. Aerial stems absent or very short and inconspicuous (to 3 cm long with age), then unbranched or rarely with a basal branch. Leaves in a dense basal rosette (aerial stem leaves alternate but crowded), sessile or with a short, poorly differentiated petiole, strongly ascending. Leaf blades 3–17 cm long, 1–7(–10) mm wide, linear or narrowly oblanceolate, angled or tapered to a sharply pointed tip, long-tapered at the base, the margins entire or occasionally with a few inconspicuous teeth toward the base, hairy, the upper surface glabrous, usually appearing dark green, the undersurface moderately to densely pubescent with shaggy or woolly hairs, appearing uniformly gray, with 1 main vein. Inflorescences 1 to several per plant, terminal, elongate spikes, 3–15 cm long (3–)7–15 mm in diameter (excluding the bracts), densely flowered (the axis not visible between the flowers), the stalk 2–25 cm long, hairy, the axis solid. Lowermost bracts 10–30 mm long, the bracts progressively shorter toward the spike tip, all or most extending past the flowers, linear above a short, inconspicuous, translucent pair of basal wings, long-tapered to the loosely ascending to somewhat arched tip, hairy, more densely so on the undersurface. Cleistogamous flowers usually abundant. Calyces deeply 4-lobed, 2.0–2.5 mm long, slightly zygomorphic, the lobes narrowly oblong-obovate, rounded at the tip, the upper pair with somewhat broader, papery margins than the lower pair. Corollas more or less zygomorphic, the lobes 1.4–2.5 mm long, broadly ovate with a shallowly cordate base, rounded at the tip, the margins entire, 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 somewhat heart-shaped. Fruits 2.8–3.5 mm long, ellipsoid to ovoid, circumscissile just below the midpoint. Seeds usually 2 per fruit, 2–3 mm long, oblong-elliptic, the surface deeply concave on 1 side, otherwise relatively smooth, reddish brown to brown, with a pair of lighter longitudinal stripes on either side of the concave portion. 2n=20. May–November.

Scattered nearly throughout the state, but apparently absent from the northwestern portion of the Glaciated Plains Division (eastern U.S. west to South Dakota and Texas; Canada; introduced in the western U.S., Hawaii, Europe, Asia). Glades, savannas, upland prairies, openings of mesic to dry upland forests, ledges and tops of bluffs, banks of streams, and occasionally margins of marshes, fens, and sloughs; also old strip mines, pastures, old fields, fallow fields, banks of ditches, railroads, roadsides, and open disturbed areas.

This species is very variable in size, sometimes flowering when plants are only about 5 cm tall, at other times reaching a total height of more than 40 cm. It is distinctive in its elongate bracts, but these sometimes are not well-developed on young plants. The bracts and inflorescence axis continue to elongate as the flowering season progresses.