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| Dotseed plantain (Plantago erecta) in Mother Nature's Backyard |
Spring
has definitely arrived in local gardens.
Precipitation has been below average and the rains erratic; but some
annual wildflowers are more than happy with the intense bouts of rain and
subsequent heat. Among them is a sweet
little annual known as Dotseed
plantain. It’s blooming profusely in
gardens throughout the South Bay, including Mother Nature’s Backyard.
Dotseed
plantain, also known as California plantain, Foothill plantain, Dwarf plantain
and Annual plantain, is native to the California Floristic Province (the area
of California west of the Sierra Nevada mountain range) into Oregon and south
into Baja California, Mexico. It was
once very common in lower elevation parts of Los Angeles County from the
coastal bluffs and prairies to the desert.
It can sometimes still be found on grassy beaches, coastal dunes, in vernal
pools and other places that are wet in winter and dry out in spring. It also occurs on grassy, open slopes in
coastal sage scrub, valley grassland and chaparral plant communities.
Dotseed
plantain is a member of the genus Plantago
(the Plantains), a genus with about 200 species world-wide. Most are small herbaceous plants of moist
places; some (like the Common plantain, Plantago
major and English plantain, Plantago
lanceolata) are
common roadside weeds. But many are used
as larval food for certain species of butterfly (more on that below) and as
medicinal plants.
Southern
California is home to four other native plantains: the Coastal plantain (Plantago elongata) which occurs in
Orange and San Diego counties; the Desert (Wooly) plantain (Plantago ovata) which once grew near the
Los Angeles county coast as well as in the desert; Patagonia
plantain (Plantago patagonica) primarily in the
San Bernardino and desert mountains; and the Mexican plantain (Plantago subnuda) mostly from the Orange
county and Northern California coasts.
According to the USDA PLANTS database, the following are synonyms for Plantago erecta: Plantago erecta Morris
ssp. rigidior Pilg.;
Plantago hookeriana Fisch.
& C.A. Mey. var. californica
(Greene) Poe; and Plantago
patagonica Jacq. var. californica
Greene.
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| Dotseed plantain (Plantago erecta) : plant |
Dotseed
plantain is a small herbaceous annual, less than 12 inches (30 cm) tall and slender. It has narrow, sometimes needle-like, leaves growing
from a basal rosette. The height of
individual plants depends on light and soil conditions, at least one of which
is soil moisture. In fact you sometimes
see marked variation in height within a patch, with shorter (sometimes only 2-3
inch) plants along the drier margins. The
entire plant is pale green and sparsely hairy with long, silky hairs visible
with the naked eye. When growing densely, the plants look like a patch
of small soft grass (see below).
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| A patch of Dotseed plantain (Plantago erecta) |
Like
other annual wildflowers, Plantago erecta
germinates with the winter rains. In our
experience, seeds don’t germinate until the ground is well-saturated, often in
January. Don’t count on lots of plants every year. Like other wildflowers, some
years are better suited than others. New
seedlings look like small, soft grass seedlings – in fact they may be difficult
to tell apart. If you grow Dotseed
plantain, refrain from pulling those ‘grass seedlings’ in winter until you’re
certain they aren’t young Plantago.
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| Plantago erecta (Dotseed plantain) seedlings |
Dotseed
plantain has interesting flowers, but you’ll have to look closely. The flowers themselves are very small – less than
5 mm (1/4 inch) across – and not particularly colorful. The
flowers are closely spaced along flowering stalks slightly longer than the
leaves; these stalks give the plants their characteristic appearance this time
of year. There may be as few as 5-6 to
as many as 50+ flowers on each stem (see below). The
flowering portion covers less than 1/5 of the flowering stalk in this species.
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| Flowering stalks, Dotseed plantain (Plantago erecta) |
The
flowers are mostly bisexual and in parts of four (see below). Petals are rounded
with pointed tips and are almost transparent except at their base. The petals
are spread back (reflexed) from the sexual organs. The
stamens (male sexual organs) are difficult to see without magnification; they are
relatively short compared to some plantain species. The plantains with showy, extended stamens
are wind pollinated (similar to grasses); Dotseed plantain is pollinated by
small insects.
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| Close-up of Dotseed plantain flower |
Dotseed
plantain is an annual, and an early one at that. It usually blooms in March in our area. The flowering season lasts only a few weeks in
most years, and the plants themselves die back – or are masked by the
later-blooming annuals – by mid-April. The
dried flower stalks remain on the plant until the seeds mature and are released
– often not until early summer. The
dried stalks are pretty in their own right, but are often hidden by other
plants. The small dry seed capsules
open from the top, releasing several seeds.
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| Dried flower stalks, Dotseed plantain (Plantago erecta) |
Like
many native wildflowers, Dotseed plantain is easy to grow. It likes full sun but may appreciate afternoon
shade in inland gardens. It’s not
particular about soil type. All it
really needs is moist soil from January through March. After flowering ceases, plants should be
allowed to dry out, completing the seed development process. Once Plantago
erecta is established it will re-seed on bare ground (or thin mulch) and
will even expand its original range if happy.
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| Dotseed plantain (foreground) with taller Purple Clarkia (not yet in bloom); Madrona Nature Center garden - Torrance CA |
Dotseed
plantain is a perfect annual to fill in around shrubs. It does brilliantly along walkways and mixes
well with native grasses and other annual wildflowers, California poppies and
perennials. It gives an early touch of
green in winter – a first hint of spring.
Many of us look forward to seeing it each year.
Dotseed
plantain has greater importance in the wilds than one might expect. Further North it is host to the larvae of two endangered
sub-species of Checkerspot butterfly, the Bay checkerspot, Euphydryas editha bayensis and the Quino checkerspot, Euphydryas editha quino. Plantago
species are eaten by larvae of the Common Buckeye butterfly, Junonia coenia, and Dotseed plantain is
sometimes planted for this butterfly.
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| Dotseed plantain with Carex (left) and Linum lewisii; home garden, Redondo Beach CA |
Seeds
of Plantago erecta were formerly
harvested in great quantities by Native Californians. It fact, it was considered an important grain
plant. It's not clear whether this species was used in
traditional medicine, as introduced plantains were in later years. But whether you eat the seeds or not,
Dotseed plantain is a charming little plant; it deserves a place in more home
gardens.
For more
information on Dotseed plantain see: http://www.fs.fed.us/psw/publications/beyers/psw_2010_beyers017(montalvo)plantagoerecta.pdf
For a
gardening information sheet see: http://www.slideshare.net/cvadheim/gardening-sheet-plantago-erecta
For more
pictures of this plant see: http://www.slideshare.net/cvadheim/plantago-erecta-web-show
For plant
information sheets on other native plants see: http://nativeplantscsudh.blogspot.com/p/gallery-of-native-plants_17.html
We
welcome your comments (below). You can
also send your questions to: mothernaturesbackyard10@gmail.com
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