Keyed Out #039 — Plantago lanceolata

Question 1

Its small flowers have petals fused into a four-lobed tube with four {stamen}s, and the swelling that becomes the fruit stands above the petals rather than beneath them.

Accepted Answer

plantain family

Question 2

Its fruit is a dry case holding more than one seed and opening to release them, not a cluster of hard one-seeded nutlets sitting in the dried remains of the flower.

Accepted Answer

Plantaginaceae

Question 3

Its corolla lobes are dry, papery and colourless, and the stamens dangle far outside the flower on long slender threads to spill their pollen into moving air.

Accepted Answer

Plantago

Question 4

All its leaves are basal, held flat in a ground-hugging rosette, and the flowers are carried on a leafless stalk rising straight out of that rosette.

Accepted Answer

Plantago

Question 5

Its flower spike is short and blunt, only 0.4 to 1.2 inches (10 to 30 mm) long, rather than a long slender cylinder running much of the stalk's length.

Accepted Answer

Plantago lanceolata

Question 6

Its blades are narrow and lance-shaped, tapering into a long channelled stalk, with three to five strong parallel ribs running the whole length of an undivided margin.

Accepted Answer

Plantago lanceolata