Species
+

Plantago lanceolata L.

Buckhorn, Buckhorn Plantain, English Plantai, English Plantain

Climate known 46 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Plantago lanceolata is a species of flowering plant in the plantain family Plantaginaceae. It is known by the common names ribwort plantain, narrowleaf plantain, English plantain, ribleaf, lamb's tongue, and buckhorn. It is a common weed on cultivated or disturbed land.

Text from Wikipedia, “Plantago lanceolata”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Plantago

Plantago is a genus of about 200 species of flowering plants in the family Plantaginaceae, commonly called plantains or fleaworts. The common name plantain is shared with the unrelated cooking plantain. Most are herbaceous plants, though a few are subshrubs growing to 60 centimetres tall.

Text from Wikipedia, “Plantago”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Plantaginaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Denmark, Finland, Føroyar +76
Wild records
445 in range· 132 open

At a glance

Warmest month
22°C
Jul, mean day; nights 14 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
876mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Oct 86 mm (CHELSA)
Light
4–35DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (June to January in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 876 mm a year, wettest October at 86 mm, driest April at 49 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 4 to 35 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -5.2 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Arnoglossum lanceolatum (L.) Gray; Arnoglossum lanceolatum var. ramosum Gray; Arnoglossum lanceolatum var. roseum Gray; Arnoglossum lanceolatum var. trinervium Gray; Lagopus lanceolatus (L.) Fourr. and 45 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (June to January in the northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (634 mm of 876 mm) takes 8 months, June to January. Mean temperature moves 14.6 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to July.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 876 mm a year, wettest October at 86 mm, driest April at 49 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

876 mm a year at the habitat, 634 mm of it June to January. Wettest month October at 86 mm, driest April at 49 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 654 mm to 1209 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 4 to 35 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 4 to 35 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 3, the highest 90th-percentile month 43).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor -5.2 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -5.2 °C, the absolute minimum -10.8 °C, about 60 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 35.8 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 0.6 °C in February (across the envelope cells -2.0 °C to 3.0 °C), warmest day 21.6 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -5.2 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 60 to 68% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 6 °C in Jan to 22 °C in Jul; mean night from 1 °C in Feb to 14 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Jan to Mar, is the three months around the coldest night. 876 mm of rain a year, most in Oct. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 396 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -10.8 °C and the 99th-percentile day 35.8 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-20°-10°10°20°30°40°frost35.8° 99th-percentile day (undated)-10.8° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125150mm rainDLI 4–35RH 60–68 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 396 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C6 / 3–96 / 5–109 / 7–1413 / 10–1617 / 14–2019 / 17–2422 / 19–2621 / 19–2618 / 16–2314 / 12–189 / 8–126 / 4–9
Night °C1 / -2–31 / -2–33 / 1–55 / 3–69 / 7–1012 / 10–1414 / 12–1614 / 12–1611 / 10–148 / 7–104 / 2–72 / -1–4
Rain mm77 / 52–10760 / 40–8368 / 46–8749 / 42–9065 / 52–9771 / 47–9378 / 40–9277 / 49–9978 / 56–10686 / 65–12784 / 60–12383 / 57–128
DLI5 / 4–1110 / 9–1717 / 16–2627 / 26–3334 / 32–3835 / 33–4234 / 32–4328 / 27–3719 / 18–2912 / 11–196 / 5–124 / 3–9
RH %67 / 63–6965 / 61–6763 / 59–6561 / 57–6260 / 58–6261 / 57–6361 / 56–6361 / 57–6363 / 59–6465 / 62–6667 / 63–6968 / 63–70

Each figure is the median across the 396 grid cells holding the 443 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 980:3445 (40.975, -7.725). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -10.8 °C, 1st-percentile night -5.2 °C, 99th-percentile day 35.8 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 396 distinct grid cells holding the 443 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 980:3445 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 41.00_-7.500, lapse-corrected +213 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 872 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeDenmark, Finland, Føroyar, Great Britain, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, Baleares, Corse, France, Portugal, Sardegna, Spain, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Kriti, Romania, Sicilia, Turkey-in-Europe, Yugoslavia, Belarus, Baltic States, Krym, Central European Russia, East European Russia, North European Russia, South European Russia, Northwest European Russia, Ukraine, Algeria, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, Azores, Canary Is., Madeira, Mauritania, West Siberia, Kazakhstan, Kirgizistan, Turkmenistan, Tadzhikistan, Uzbekistan, North Caucasus, Transcaucasus, Afghanistan, Cyprus, East Aegean Is., Iran, Iraq, Lebanon-Syria, Palestine, Turkey, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, China South-Central, Inner Mongolia, Manchuria, China North-Central, China Southeast, Xinjiang, Mongolia, Taiwan, East Himalaya, Nepal, Pakistan, West Himalaya· introduced: Egypt, Gabon, Rwanda, Zaïre, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Cape Provinces, Lesotho, Namibia, KwaZulu-Natal, Free State, Northern Provinces, Ascension, St.Helena, Altay, Krasnoyarsk, Kamchatka, Khabarovsk, Kuril Is., Magadan, Primorye, Sakhalin, Japan, Korea, Sri Lanka, Norfolk Is., Tasmania, New Zealand North, Niue, New Caledonia, Tonga, Cook Is., Easter Is., Society Is., Tuamotu, Tubuai Is., Hawaii, Alaska, Greenland, British Columbia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward I., Québec, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode I., Vermont, West Virginia, Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, District of Columbia, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest, Costa Rica, Panama, Bahamas, Bermuda, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Windward Is., French Guiana, Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil Southeast, Brazil South, Argentina Northeast, Argentina South, Argentina Northwest, Chile Central, Chile North, Chile South, Desventurados Is., Juan Fernández Is., Uruguay, Amsterdam-St.Paul Is., Crozet Is., Falkland Is., Kerguelen, Marion-Prince Edward Is., Tristan da Cunha
Kew's description“perennial” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker52.264, 4.523 · in the densest population, 162 records (36% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 445 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 132 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 587 km away. 315 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 2 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 445 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Plantago lanceolataPlantago lanceolataPlantago lanceolataPlantago lanceolataPlantago lanceolataPlantago lanceolataPlantago lanceolataPlantago lanceolata

Photographs: (c) LJ Moore-McClelland, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Lena Struwe, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (3); (c) zebedeugalinha, some rights reserved (CC BY); no rights reserved · CC0.

Photographs: iNaturalist and GBIF media did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Plantago lanceolata, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Choosing and using diversity indices: insights for ecological applications from the German Biodiversity Exploratories
E. Kathryn Morris, Tancredi Caruso, François Buscot, Markus Fischer (2014) · Ecology and Evolution
Impact of Land Use Intensity on the Species Diversity of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi in Agroecosystems of Central Europe
Fritz Oehl, Ewald Sieverding, Kurt Ineichen, Paul Mäder (2003) · Applied and Environmental Microbiology
Occupation of Biological Space During Seedling Establishment
Marlaina Ross, John L. Harper (1972) · Journal of Ecology
The Evolution of Plant Ecophysiological Traits: Recent Advances and Future Directions
David D. Ackerly, Susan A. Dudley, Sonia E. Sultan, Johanna Schmitt (2000) · BioScience
Local adaptation enhances performance of common plant species
Jasmin Joshi, Bernhard Schmid, Maria C. Caldeira, Panayiotis G. Dimitrakopoulos (2001) · Ecology Letters
Negative feedback within a mutualism: host–specific growth of mycorrhizal fungi reduces plant benefit
James D. Bever (2002) · Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences
An arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus significantly modifies the soil bacterial community and nitrogen cycling during litter decomposition
Erin Nuccio, Angela Hodge, Jennifer Pett‐Ridge, Donald J. Herman (2013) · Environmental Microbiology
Plant communities affect arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal diversity and community composition in grassland microcosms
David W. Johnson, Philippe Vandenkoornhuyse, Jonathan R. Leake, Lucy Gilbert (2003) · New Phytologist
Urban particulate pollution reduction by four species of green roof vegetation in a UK city
Andrew Speak, James Rothwell, Sarah Lindley, Claire Smith (2012) · Atmospheric Environment
Symbiotic fungal associations in ‘lower’ land plants
D. J. Read, J. G. Duckett, Richard E. Francis, Roberto Ligrone (2000) · Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Plantago 1 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence search API
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: filled 2026-09-20
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media did not answercarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: api.gbif.org not asked: offline re-derivation
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 12 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.