''Plantago hookeriana'', commonly called Hookers plantain, is a species of flowering plant in the plantain family (

Plantaginaceae Plantaginaceae, the plantain family, is a large, diverse family of flowering plants in the order Lamiales that includes common flowers such as snapdragon and foxglove. It is unrelated to the banana-like fruit also called "plantain." In older cl ...

). It is native to

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

and

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

in the United States.''Plantago hookeriana''.
NatureServe. It is typically found in disturbed sandy areas.''Plantago hookeriana''
Flora of North America This species is an annual herb growing from a

taproot A taproot is a large, central, and dominant root from which other roots sprout laterally. Typically a taproot is somewhat straight and very thick, is tapering in shape, and grows directly downward. In some plants, such as the carrot, the taproo ...

. The leaves are linear or lance-shaped and may reach 30 centimeters long, but are usually smaller. The

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed o ...

is a narrow spike up to 12 centimeters long. Each small flower has whitish corolla lobes with brown spots or stripes.''Plantago hookeriana''.
USDA NRCS Plant Fact Sheet. It flowers in the spring. This species is planted to provide a forage and to revegetate wildlife habitat and rangeland. The seed provides food for many types of

game birds Galliformes is an order of heavy-bodied ground-feeding birds that includes turkeys, chickens, quail, and other landfowl. Gallinaceous birds, as they are called, are important in their ecosystems as seed dispersers and predators, and are often ...

and the foliage is consumed by several types of animals, such as deer. The Latin

specific epithet In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

''hookeriana'' refers to

William Jackson Hooker Sir William Jackson Hooker (6 July 178512 August 1865) was an English botanist and botanical illustrator, who became the first director of Kew when in 1841 it was recommended to be placed under state ownership as a botanic garden. At Kew he ...

.Lloyd H. Shinners. The North Texas species of Plantago. 1950. Field and Laboratory. volume 18. pages 113-119.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q7201569 hookeriana Flora of North America