Wildlife Blog by Ron Allen – 7th August 2021
Strange plant on our drive
It had rained and the rain had washed the gravel on our front drive revealing this rather strange plant, the Buckshorn Plantain Plantago coronopus.
The leaves of the Buckshorn Plantain are supposedly antler-shaped and they turn up around the edges like a basket (images 1 and 2). Now, this is a coastal sand dune plant but also occurs inland on Petersfield Heath and so perhaps the seeds of this pretty little plant arrived on our gravel drive on my shoe. Amazing what is on one’s own parade.
For comparison, here are two other much more common plantains from our drive, the Great Plantain with rounded leaves (although this is rather a small version) that stands a great deal of trampling (image 3), and the Ribwort Plantain Plantago lanceolata with long lance-like leaves that prefers less disturbed locations (image 4).