A small, undistinguished perennial, 40 cm (16 in) high, it has a basal rosette of ovate leaves and cylindrical spikes of inconspicuous brownish-green flowers.<\/p>\n
The Saxons called it \u201cway broad\u201d, because it was so often found by the wayside. And the story goes that this plant was once a beautiful young girl, who was changed into plantain for refusing to leave the roadway where she expected her lover to appear. As a medicinal herb it was highly rated by Pliny, who attributed to it the ability to fuse together pieces of flesh cooking in a pot, and to cure the madness of dogs or their bites. It was often recommended as an antidote to poison and in the US it was held to be a remedy for rattle-snake bite by native tribes.<\/p>\n
Said to prefer moist soil, but tolerates any conditions in sun or shade. Self-seeds freely. Parts used Leaves fresh or dried.<\/p>\n
Plantain was thought to promote healing and to have antibacterial properties. Mainly used as a poultice or in ointments to be applied externally to wounds, sores, ulcers, bites and stings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A small, undistinguished perennial, 40 cm (16 in) high, it has a basal rosette of ovate leaves and cylindrical spikes of inconspicuous brownish-green flowers. History and traditions The Saxons called it \u201cway broad\u201d, because it was so often found by the wayside. And the story goes that this plant was once a beautiful young girl, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":774,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[109,111,102,97,119,105,98,127,160,113,114,131,118],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-acidic-soil","category-alkaline-soil","category-clay-soil","category-full","category-green","category-loamy-soil","category-partial","category-perennial","category-perennial-plant-type","category-spring","category-summer","category-weed","category-white"],"meta_box":{"botanical-name":"Plantago major","common-names":"Broad-leaved plantain, Cart Track Plant, Cuckoo\u2019s bread, Doorweed, Dooryard plantain, Englishman\u2019s-foot, Great plantain, Plantain, Ripple grass, Roundelay plantain, Slan-lus, Snake-plant, Snakeweed, Waybread, Waybroad, Whiteman\u2019s-foot","family":"Plantaginaceae","flower_bloom_time":[{"term_id":113,"name":"Spring","slug":"spring","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":113,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":112,"count":96,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":114,"name":"Summer","slug":"summer","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":114,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":112,"count":163,"filter":"raw"}],"flower_color":[{"term_id":119,"name":"Green","slug":"green","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":119,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":116,"count":34,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":118,"name":"White","slug":"white","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":118,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":116,"count":113,"filter":"raw"}],"plant_life_cycle":[{"term_id":127,"name":"Perennial","slug":"perennial","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":127,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":84,"count":133,"filter":"raw"}],"plant_types":[{"term_id":127,"name":"Perennial","slug":"perennial","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":127,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":84,"count":133,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":131,"name":"weed","slug":"weed","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":131,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":88,"count":20,"filter":"raw"}],"soil_ph":[{"term_id":109,"name":"Acidic Soil","slug":"acidic-soil","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":109,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":108,"count":148,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":110,"name":"Neutral Soil","slug":"neutral-soil","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":110,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":108,"count":158,"filter":"raw"}],"soil_type":[{"term_id":102,"name":"Clay Soil","slug":"clay-soil","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":102,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":101,"count":108,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":105,"name":"Loamy Soil","slug":"loamy-soil","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":105,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":101,"count":179,"filter":"raw"}],"sun_exposure":[{"term_id":97,"name":"Full","slug":"full","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":97,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":96,"count":197,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":98,"name":"Partial","slug":"partial","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":98,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":96,"count":126,"filter":"raw"}],"usda_hardiness_zones":"Zone: 3 - 12","region_or_country_of_origin":"Eurasia, Europe and Central Asia","plant_mature_size":"
Height<\/strong>: 12 to 15 feet tall<\/p>\n"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=771"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":773,"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771\/revisions\/773"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}