Hoary Plantain - Plantago media

The flower spike of greenish white flowers with long pink-purple stamens is borne on an unbranched, leafless stem which is greyish, short and downy. The stem arises from a basal rosette of strongly ribbed leaves with 7 to 9 veins.

Ribwort Plantain can have broad and hairy leaves in a basal rosette early in the season

Photograph of the whole plant in its habitat (RPR)

Dry grassy habitats, churchyards, canalsides, often on calcareous ground.

May to August, sometimes later.

Perennial.

Widespread and locally frequent in England, but rarer elsewhere in Britain.

Locally frequent in Leicestershire and Rutland.

In the Flora of Leicestershire (Primavesi and Evans 1988) it was found in 205 of the 617 tetrads, and in the Flora of Rutland (Messenger 1971) in 58 tetrads.

It is listed on the current VC55 Rare Plant Register (Hall and Woodward 2022) because of its threat-level