Today's write-up, and hand-model, is courtesy of Ruth:
The common plantain, Plantago major, is just that, common! It is found all over the Canada and the USA as well as its original Eurasia (it is also listed as introduced / invasive in many islands of the Pacific). Plantago major has no specific soil requirements and is happiest growing in the sun. It has been used in cultivation as a panacea -- or medicine for everything -- in many cultures. Some of you might be thinking, "Are you serious, I've been trying to scare this weed out of my lawn or path for ages, people actually plant this intentionally?" Common plantain reportedly has "A range of biological activities...from plant extracts including wound healing activity, anti-inflammatory, analgesic, antioxidant, weak antibiotic, immuno modulating and antiulcerogenic activity" (see Samuelsen, A. 2000. The traditional uses, chemical constituents and biological activities of Plantago major L. A review. Journal of Ethnopharmacology. 71(1-2):1-21. doi:10.1016/S0378-8741(00)00212-9 ).
Daniel Mosquin and I went out to the Physic Garden to take these photos for a booklet being produced about the garden. We have demonstrated an interesting property of the leaves, where the vascular bundles stay intact when the leaves are damaged. Wikipedia notes that the vascular bundles are sometimes used in making small cords or braiding due to their toughness. I speculate that this property of the bundles might be a survival mechanism, helping to prevents pest from gnawing through the veins and thereby only damaging the green tissue. The leaves are easily identified with their parallel venation. Parallel venation rarely occurs in dicots and is normally regarded as a grass or monocot characteristic.
The native peoples of North America called the plant “White man’s footprint” as it soon appeared where immigrants from Europe had settled.
Note that the correct English name is Greater Plantain http://www.bsbi.org.uk/html/database.html (BSBI is the legitimate naming authority for English names of European species).
As a trekking guide in the Alpes this plant is a wonder for hurting feet! I just put it directly under the ball of the foot inside the shoe or on the ankle, and presto! Instant releif!
Also it looooves to be tread on, another reason for it being called 'footprint'?!
The band-aid plant! Someone a long time ago taught me to chew up a leaf & tie it onto an "owie" with another leaf - almost as cool as a spiderman band-aid and works just as well.
That's a great picture showing the venation, too.
I've had a similar experience - After getting an abrasion on my hand during a long camping/wildcrafting trip, I chewed some leaves, put them on the wound and taped it all down with a piece of gauze. By that evening the amount of healing was really remarkable and the pain was gone. This is a wonderful plant! :)
Yes! to all the beautifully direct healing uses. Also be aware that this is a wonderful wild edible as well. Munch the smaller leaves fresh, or add them to soups or stir-fry for an earthy, satisfying, slightly mushroomy taste. Especially good now, in hearty, rooty fall meals.
Seeing the vascular bundles exposed like that brings back childhood memories of us neighborhood kids making "banjos" by separating the leaves at the point where the shape flares out while leaving the veins intact.
Carol
Interesting about the vascular bundles - Cornus does that too.
The late Annishinabe ethnobotanist Keewaydinoquay told of using plantain poultices to pull glass out of the body and to stop allergic reactions to bee stings and bites.
One day she was lecturing on plantain to her University class when the mother of one student was visiting. Three years later she got a box from Florida, where she knew no one. Upon opening it, she found a gift from the student's mother. It seemed that she and two friends were gardening together when they got spider's bites. They didn't think too much of it, but as she left she saw some plantain growing and picked it, chewed it up and made a spit poultice over the bite. The next day her friends were dead, but she was not.
I have seen spit poutices of plantain either prevent or delay anaphalaptic reactions to bee stings by a few hours, allowing people to get to an epi-pen if needed.
This is a plant that grows everywhere and I always teach it to children. The idea that a common weed can save your life can change their relationship to plants.
An observant, but botanically naive student found our more common narrower leaved plantain on a field trip and asked me if it was a monocot -- she'd remembered that I'd covered the parallel veins of monocots in class, bless her.
And do you know, I was hard put to tell her why it wasn't a monocot leaf. As we investigated, we found that it didn't tear like a corn leaf (or whatever I'd brought to class) -- the nearly invisible cross-veins gave a lengthwise tear a distinctive pattern, and showed up the tiny veins.(The big taproot would have given it away, and we compared that to the roots of a clump of grass, later.)
Plaintain makes quite a nice addition to a mix of grasses and dandelion in a wild-growing ground cover, and is always that fresh green color. I have a special soft spot for it because of that student. I just know she's become a wonderful teacher.
Interesting about this plant. Reminded me how my mom would boil it with parsley and drink the liquid to relieve kidney stones.
Does anyone know of a plant that looks similar to this and has 5 veins in it. It too has healing properties. Was a common plant in the Mediterranean coast.
"Does anyone know of a plant that looks similar to this and has 5 veins in it"
Greater Plantain often has five, sometimes even seven or nine veins. The three veins in the lower pic above is actually rather less common than five.
Hoary Plantain P. media is another possibility.
plantain healed an infected saw cut.Where the leaves were wrapped around the inflammation overnight, the vein pattern left red lines and the infection was drawn out. I was amazed and have put the healing properties of plantain with aloe vera. A poutice of plantain drew out a grey horny growth from a friend's back. The Dr. was impressed.
Only problem with this medical use, I can't think of anywhere to find leaves which haven't been heavily widdled or cr@pped on by dogs . . . :-((
my this plant just grows all over
florida even on the grounds where
i live- not to be used for sure
the atlas of florida vascular plant
institute for systematic botany
has this plant listed and pictures
they have just posted thier new
beta web site daniel and ruth
it really is nice thank you
Thank you for solving a mystery and reviving a childhood memory.
After homesteading for 10 years in Alberta Canada, my grandparents moved to the U.S. in 1914 and settled in Washington State on acreage they developed into a dairy farm. My siblings and I spent 3 weeks or so every summer on the farm until we were about 12. My grandmother was a wonderful gardener and raised vegetables and gorgeous peonies, roses and gladiolas in 2 large, seemingly weed-free gardens liberally fertilized via the chicken house.
We kids were forbidden to pull the "weeds" growing down the center of the long lane leading to the farmhouse and barns. One day a bee stung my bare foot which then swelled to an amazing size. I was horrified to see my grandmother pluck some of the "weeds" from the lane to make a bandage for my foot. She did not chew the plants. After an hour or two the throbbing pain in my foot (and head) disappeared. The swelling took much longer...she said I had waited too long to tell her of the bee sting. Another of life's lessons. This happened nearly 60 years ago.
I could hardly believe my luck in seeing your photos and identification. The "weed" was the common plantain (with 5 veins), a healer to my grandmother and a "weed" to me no longer. My grandparents are long gone, and the farm as well, but the common plantain survives...and, as it turns out, on my own property too.
As a 5 year old child growing in Poland after the WWII I developed boils on my legs. My mother cured it very quickly by applying leaves of plantain growing in our farmyard. I remember being very impressed by it. Whenever I come across it now this experience of wander comes back.
Krystyna
What an amazing and fascinating collection of stories about this "weed". I shall never look at it the same way again, and wait till I get another wound from gardening!
I just want to say this is why I so love this website. Apart from the brilliant photos, I never ceased to be amazed at the fascinating facts and folklore about the commonest plants.
Well, very much feedback, this plant in Peru is used to lower inflammation, is an infusion and the resulting water to cover the area to treat, and here is called "Llanten"
Hi,
A terrific webpage with lots of valuable
feedback!
I've been involved with traditional Native
medicine for 35 years. Back in 1974, I recall
a Mi'kmaq person telling me that the veins of
the leaves could be steeped in water and the
water mixed with milk, as a treatment for
stomach ulcers. I haven't heard anyone else
mention the remedy, since that time.
The Mi'kmaq also used the entire leaf steeped
in water as a general stomach medicine tea.
All the best,
Laurie