''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 (). The term angiosperm is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek words (; 'container, vessel') and (; 'seed'), meaning that the seeds are enclosed with ...

in the plantain family

Plantaginaceae Plantaginaceae, the plantain family or veronica family, is a large, diverse family (biology), family of flowering plants in the order Lamiales that includes common flowers such as Antirrhinum, snapdragon and Digitalis, foxglove. It is unrelated ...

. It has a subcosmopolitan distribution in temperate and Arctic regions, native to most of Europe, northwest Africa, northern and central Asia, northern North America, and southern South America.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 ...

perennial plant In horticulture, the term perennial (''wikt:per-#Prefix, per-'' + ''wikt:-ennial#Suffix, -ennial'', "through the year") is used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annual plant, annuals and biennial plant, biennials. It has thus been d ...

with a dense

rosette Rosette is the French diminutive of ''rose''. It may refer to: Flower shaped designs * Rosette (award), a mark awarded by an organisation * Rosette (design), a small flower design *hence, various flower-shaped or rotational symmetric forms: ** R ...

leaves A leaf (: leaves) is a principal appendage of the stem of a vascular plant, usually borne laterally above ground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, stem, ...

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 Flowers, also known as blooms and blossoms, are the reproductive structures of flowering plants ( angiosperms). Typically, they are structured in four circular levels, called whorls, around the end of a stalk. These whorls include: calyx, m ...

s are small, greenish-brown with brown

stamen The stamen (: stamina or stamens) is a part consisting of the male reproductive organs of a flower. Collectively, the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filament ...

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 Taxonomy (biology), biological classification, subspecies (: subspecies) is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (Morphology (biology), morpholog ...

: *''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 an ...

s in mountains.

Ecology and physiology

In much of the range it is strictly

coast A coast (coastline, shoreline, seashore) is the land next to the sea or the line that forms the boundary between the land and the ocean or a lake. Coasts are influenced by the topography of the surrounding landscape and by aquatic erosion, su ...

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 P ...

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 Uni ...

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 Europe Flora of North Africa Flora of Northern America Flora of southern South America Flora of Western Asia Halophytes Plants described in 1753 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus