Robin's plantain

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Robin's plantain

Robin's plantain inflorescence

Robin's plantain phyllaries

Robin's plantain

Robin's plantain basal leaves

Robin's plantain

Robin's plantain cauline leaf

Robin's plantain inflorescence

Morphology

Stem

Solitary, erect to ascending, unbranched below inflorescence, hirsute to villous.

Leaves

Basal and carline. Basal lives present at flowering, sessile or short-petiolate; blade oblanceolate to broadly obovate, .8 to 5.2 inches long, .25 to 2 inches wide, base usually long tapering, margins entire or bluntly toothed or scalloped, tip rounded, surfaces and margins moderately to densely pubescent. Cauline leaves few, gradually reduced above; blade sessile, lanceolate to oblong or ovate, .4 to 2.8 inches, base clasping or slightly auriculate, margins usually toothed or rarely lowermost with a few teeth near the apex, margins ciliate, surfaces moderately hirsute, apex often tapered to sharp point.

Inflorescence

Solitary heads or 2-5 heads in flat-topped panicles, radiate. Involucres turbinate to hemispheric, .2 to .28 inch tall, .24 to .8 inch wide. Phyllaries in 2-3(-4) series, sparsely to moderately hirsute, often also minutely glandular. Receptacle .5 to .8 inch diameter.

Flower

Ray florets 50-80(-100), corollas pale blue to pinkish, .24 to .4 inch long. Disc florets numerous, corollas yellow, .18 to .24 inch lobes 5.

Fruit

Achenes, tan, oblong, .05 to .08 inch, 2-nerved, surfaces glabrous to glabrate; papas with inner series of 22-36 threadlike bristles and often an outer series of a few shorter bristles.

Ecology

Habitat

Stream banks, rocky openings of dry to moist oak woods, bottomland, ravines, prairies

Distribution

Cherokee County, Kansas

Additional Notes