Plantago australis

Plant: Perennial herb; to 100 cm Leaves: petiolate or the petiole gradually merging with the blade; blades variable, linear to elliptic to broadly or narrowly ovate to obovate, 2.5-51.5 cm long, 0.6-7.7 (-9) cm wide, attenuate at base, acute at apex, the surfaces usually glabrous, less often sparsely pubescent to densely pillose, with inconspicuously to conspicuously toothed ciliate margins INFLORESCENCE: pedunculate, scapose; PEDUNCLES to 100 cm long, with appressed hairs. SPIKES to 56 cm long, interrupted near base, slender; bracts narrowly triangular, triangular,or broadly or narrowly ovate, 1.4-7.5 mm long, ciliate, with the lower surface glabrous Flowers: perfect or imperfect; sepals elliptic to obtuse to acute, 1.8-3.4 mm long, ciliate, with glabrous outer surface; corolla lobes spreading to erect, 1.3-3.2 (-3.5) mm long, longer than sepals Fruit: CAPSULE breaking well below middle; SEEDS 1-3, pyriform to ellipsoid, 1.2-2.8 mm long, the inner side planar, the outer surface finely and shallowly pitted REFERENCES: Huisinga, Kristin D. and Tina J. Ayers. 1999. Plantaginaceae. Ariz. - Nev. Acad. Sci. 32(1).