''Plantago maritima'', the sea plantain, seaside plantain or goose tongue, is a species of

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...

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 has a subcosmopolitan distribution in temperate and Arctic regions, native to most of

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

, northwest

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

, northern and central

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

, northern

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

, and southern

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

.Flora Europaea
''Plantago maritima''
/ref>

Description

It is a

herbaceous Herbaceous plants are vascular plants that have no persistent woody stems above ground. This broad category of plants includes many perennials, and nearly all annuals and biennials. Definitions of "herb" and "herbaceous" The fourth edition of t ...

perennial plant A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the years") is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also wide ...

with a dense rosette of

leaves A leaf (plural, : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant plant stem, stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", wh ...

without petioles. Each leaf is linear, 2–22 cm long and under 1 cm broad, thick and fleshy-textured, with an acute apex and a smooth or distantly toothed margin; there are three to five veins. The

flower A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants (plants of the division Angiospermae). The biological function of a flower is to facilitate reproduction, usually by providing a mechani ...

s are small, greenish-brown with brown

stamen The stamen (plural ''stamina'' or ''stamens'') is the pollen-producing reproductive organ of a flower. Collectively the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filame ...

s, produced in a dense spike 0.5–10 cm long on top of a stem 3–20 cm tall.Blamey, M. & Grey-Wilson, C. (1989). ''Flora of Britain and Northern Europe''. Plants of British Columbia
''Plantago maritima''
/ref>Flora of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago

/ref>

Subspecies

There are four

subspecies In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all species ...

: *''Plantago maritima'' subsp. ''maritima''. Europe, Asia, northwest Africa. *''Plantago maritima'' subsp. ''borealis'' (Lange) A. Blytt and O. Dahl. Arctic regions. All parts of the plant small, compared to temperate plants. *''Plantago maritima'' subsp. ''juncoides'' (Lam.) Hultén. South America, North America (this name to North American plants has been questioned). *''Plantago maritima'' subsp. ''serpentina'' (All.) Arcang. Central Europe, on

serpentine soil Serpentine soil is an uncommon soil type produced by weathered ultramafic rock such as peridotite and its metamorphic derivatives such as serpentinite. More precisely, serpentine soil contains minerals of the serpentine subgroup, especially anti ...

s in mountains.

Ecology and physiology

In much of the range it is strictly

coast The coast, also known as the coastline or seashore, is defined as the area where land meets the ocean, or as a line that forms the boundary between the land and the coastline. The Earth has around of coastline. Coasts are important zones in n ...

al, growing on sandy soils. In some areas, it also occurs in

alpine Alpine may refer to any mountainous region. It may also refer to: Places Europe * Alps, a European mountain range ** Alpine states, which overlap with the European range Australia * Alpine, New South Wales, a Northern Village * Alpine National Pa ...

habitats, along mountain streams. Some of the physiology and metabolism of this species has been described, of particular note is how the metabolism of this species is altered with elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations.

Uses

samphire Samphire is a name given to a number of succulent salt-tolerant plants (halophytes) that tend to be associated with water bodies. *Rock samphire, ''Crithmum maritimum'' is a coastal species with white flowers that grows in Ireland, the Unit ...

s, the leaves of the plant are harvested to be eaten raw or cooked.Seymour, Tom, ''Foraging New England: Edible wild food and medicinal plants from Maine to the Adirondacks to Long Island Sound'', 2nd ed. (Guilford, Connecticut: Morris Book Publishing, 2013)
pp. 2-4.
See also: Seymour, Tom (June 2009)

''Fishermen's Voice'' (Gouldsboro, Maine, U.S.A.). The seeds are also eaten raw or cooked, and can be ground into flour.

References

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q21126 maritima Edible plants Flora of Asia Flora of Europe Flora of North America Flora of South America Halophytes Plants described in 1753 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus