Plantago maritima, L.

Tutin, T. G., Heywood, V. H., Burges, N. A., Moore, D. M., Valentine, D. H., Walters, S. M. & Webb, D. A., 1976, Flora Europaea. Volume 4. Plantaginaceae to Compositae (and Rubiaceae), Cambridge University Press : 41

8. P. maritima L. , Sp. Pl. 114 (1753) .

Perennial with several or many rosettes; stock laxly branched, leafy only at the apex. Leaves (2-)3-25 x 0-2-1 -5 cm, linear, usually entire, usually long-attenuate at the apex, slightly fleshy and coriaceous, not rigid, more or less canaliculate, glabrous or subglabrous except for sericeous hairs at the base. Scapes numerous, usually exceeding the leaves, stout. Spikes (1—)3—7(—10) x 0-3-0-4 cm, lax. Bracts ovate-lanceolate, acute, strongly keeled, narrowly scarious at margin, about equalling the calyx. Anterior sepals with the membranous margins of unequal width; posterior sepals with keel unwinged. Capsule 2-locular; seeds 2-4, 2-2-5 mm. 2л= 12, 18, 24. Maritime habitats, and on saline or base-rich soils inland. Most of Europe, but rare in the extreme south. All except Az BI Bu Cr Gr Sb Tu.

Various attempts have been made to subdivide this rather variable species, but the taxa proposed have proved difficult to define morphologically. Plants from Arctic Europe have been assigned to subsp. juncoides (Lam.) Hultén , Kungl. Svenska Vet.- Akad. Handl. ser. 4, 8: 15 (1958), which is considered to differ from the widespread subsp. maritima in having wide bracts, more ovoid to globose capsule, the scapes not exceeding the leaves and more numerous seeds per capsule, but these criteria have not proved very satisfactory.

Subsp. serpentina (All.) Arcangeli, Comp. FI. Ital. 499 (1882) (P. serpentina All.), with long-acuminate bracts and the posterior sepal with the keel often narrowly winged, occurs in S. Europe, especially on mountains above 2000 m; it is probably only an ecological variant.