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Ribwort Plantain
(36 votes, average: 3.75 out of 5)
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Ribwort Plantain
The flower heads taste surprisingly like mushroom and can also be used by school children as ‘pop’ guns.
| Hedgerow Type | |
| Common Names | Narrow Leaf Plantain |
| Scientific Name | Plantago lanceolata |
| Season Start | Mar |
| Season End | Nov |
Please note that each and every hedgerow item you come across may vary in appearance to these photos.
Leaves
The leaves are long, narrow, lanceolate shaped and have veins (ribs) running parallel from the base of the leaf to the pointed top.
Flowers
The flowers grow from a stubby brown inflorescence on a leafless flower stalk and are tiny and white and can be found throughout Summer.
Stem
The flower stem is square in profile and can be quite hairy.
Habitat
Fields, lawns, meadows, roadsides, waste ground, parks and even sand dunes. It is a very hardy plant and can usually be found in any environment with soil.
Possible Confusion
Can look a little like Hoary Plantain, Plantago media but this has downy/hairy leaves and is edible.
Taste
The leaves, like Common Plantain, are too bitter, even when young but the ‘bud’ on the flower stem tastes suprisingly like mushroom.
Frequency
Very common.
Collecting
The leaves can be collected at any time for medicinal use, the flower ‘buds’, if being used to make a mushroom stock, need to be collected after they have turned brown but before they get really dry.
Medicinal Uses
Ribwort Plantain seems to be a very versatile addition to the medicine cabinet being an antihistamine, antifungal, antioxidant, analgesic and even a mild antibiotic. Used as an antihistamine, Ribwort Plantain is very effective at dealing with nettle stings or insect bites/stings unlike Dock which is just a placebo but if your children get stung and you can’t find any Plantain, placebos work.
The leaves can also be used to make a tea that acts as an effective cough medicine.
The roots apparantly make an effective treatment for rattlesnake bites!
