PLANTAIN: CHARACTERISTICS, TYPES, ORIGIN - BIOLOGY - 2024

The plantain (Plantago major) is a perennial herb belonging to the Plantagináceae family (Plantaginaceae, as it is formally known in Latin). It is a plant that has leaves with oval shapes, whole or somewhat sinuous at the edges, with a very long petiole, all radical and arranged in the form of a rosette.

From the center of the plantain, a scape 20-40 centimeters high arises, which ends in a long and tight floral spike. The breeding of this herb is done on somewhat damp roads and in meadows with abundant fertilizer. It has been used in medicine as an astringent (to heal tissues in the body).

The plantain has an important biodiversity, which is why it receives different names such as alisma, for the water plantain and the lesser plantain (Plantago lanceolata). The latter has lanceolate (that is, lance-shaped) leaves, erect, and with an inflorescence that is generally short.

At the geographical and linguistic level, the plantain is known in many ways according to the regions in which it is present. This plant has spellings like yantén, plantén and lantén, among many others; In English, meanwhile, there are terms such as cart-track plant and white-man's-foot.

In the languages ​​of the American Indians, for their part, there are countless words for plantain that vary according to the Indo-American ethnic group, such as yures xukuri and xiw kin.

The reason why there are so many biological and linguistic variants of the plantain is basically due to its intense diffusion that took place since the Age of Discovery. The commercial expansion of the European powers in America and in other latitudes made this plant known in the most distant corners.

Today plantain is very popular in countries like Mexico, both in rural and urban settings.

In the same way, this plant adapted to different habitats that are often those of intermediate, temperate environments, in which humidity predominates. The propagation by the wind has caused that the plantain has spread successfully.

Its unique morphological characteristics make it easy to identify by botanists and herbalists who take advantage of its chemical properties in order to treat various health conditions and disorders in people.

Taxonomic classification of plantain

The plantain is an angiosperm plant for the simple fact of having flowers and seeds. Its classification in the taxonomy applied to the branch of botany is as follows:

• Kingdom: Plantae.
• Subkingdom : Tracheobionta (refers to vascular plants, those that have vessels in their internal structure).
• Superdivision: Spermatophyta (that is, plants with seeds).
• Division: Magnoliophyta (belonging to flowering plants, which undoubtedly groups the plantain within the angiosperms).
• Class: Magnoliopsida (dicotyledons, with two cotyledons).
• Subclass: Asteridae.
• Order: Plantaginales.

Due to its wide biological variety, the plantain is called in different ways depending on the geographical region and the type of plant that is on hand.

The common plantain or plantain major (Plantago major) is the name most used in the Castilian language because it is the most widespread variety in the Old World, especially in Spain. The lesser plantain (Plantago lanceolata), for its part, is much less visible and is distinguished by its typical lance-shaped leaf.

The Spanish language registers many nouns with which this angiosperm plant is designated. In several terminological sources there is evidence of the use of words such as lantén and lanté, apart from antén, landen, lante, plantén, anten, diantén, lanter, lanty, llanté and yantén.

These orthographic divergences of plantain are joined by other even more curious names, such as donkey's ears, palette knife, plantago, antenna, cancerina, duck chili, cow's tongue, lentil and mucilage.

Of all the Spanish names mentioned, the only one that responds directly to the Latin etymology is that of plantago. This word is part of the scientific nomenclature used to categorize plantain in the vast kingdom of plants.

This word, by the way, is not used in any way in English, a language that rather uses terms such as broadleaf plantain, cart-track plant, common plantain, greater plantain and white-man's-foot to designate plantain.

Likewise, Native American languages ​​have not been exempt from these language disparities. Some authors point out that in the territory of present-day Mexico the aborigines, after learning about this plant from the hands of Europeans, called - and still call - the plantain uitsuacua sipiati and yures xukuri in Michoacán, yok tje in Chiapas, snoktail in Puebla and xiw kin in the Yucatan peninsula.

These terms commonly come from Nahuatl and other Amerindian languages ​​that are related to it.

Origin of plantain

The plantain is a plant of European origin that spread throughout the rest of the world throughout the colonization. This plant has several names in many languages; even the same language has different ways of designating it.

Given its medicinal uses, it did not take long for the plantain to spread not only throughout the Old Continent, but also to all corners of the New World.

Therefore, it can be said that the plantain is an exotic plant in America, that is, it came from abroad brought from Europe.

This plant is known to be so widely distributed that it is possible to see it in any market or herbal stall; and that in Mexico it is seen very frequently in places like Veracruz, Sinaloa, Baja California, Jalisco, Michoacán, Oaxaca, San Luis Potosí, Puebla, Chiapas, Colima, Hidalgo, Tlaxcala, Sonora, Tamaulipas and others.

The foregoing is irrefutable proof of an important fact, and that is that the plantain is present not only in many countries, but also in both rural and urban environments.

This plant can be found everywhere, regardless of whether it is in the country or in the city. In fact, plantain many times grows in the patios of houses, which is why its quantity is abundant and its supply is safe for domestic herbal purposes.

Description and identification

To identify plantain, exact descriptions of the plant are followed, which are general and often take into account the most common variety, which is Plantago major.

The various specialists agree that plantain is a plant whose habit and way of life correspond to those of an erect herb. This type of grass is one that, having a height of between 10 and 65 centimeters, remains in a firm and upright position.

Additionally, the plantain is a plant with a thick and compact stem with alternating leaves that form a kind of rosette. These leaves have a green channel-shaped petiole, hence it is said to be ribbed.

The leaves, in fact, have purple tones at their base, they are thick and have a length that ranges from 4 to 20 centimeters. The base of the plant to the stem may have hairs and a series of vessels - the "veins" -, which are parallel and divergent from each other.

In plantain the inflorescences can range from 1 to 30, depending on the plant, and their length can range from 6 to 40 centimeters. As for its flowers, they can be up to 20 centimeters long, with sepals without hairs or with very fine hairs and spikes with cylindrical-linear shapes.

The fruit of the plantain, for its part, is nothing other than a capsule with the appearance of an ellipse or a globe that measures up to 5 millimeters in length. Its color is dark brown and inside there are up to 30 seeds.

Plantain seedlings have two cotyledons that have an ellipse shape. Here there are no hairs or hypocotyl (the part of the young plant that comes out of the seed, at the bottom of the cotyledon). The alternate leaves are rosette, that is, they are like rosettes, as if they were flower-shaped.

In this plant, the roots are fibrous and have a main root that is degenerated, and whose appearance or external appearance is best seen in the smaller roots, the rootlets.

Habitat

As mentioned before, one of the names of the plantain is, in English, white-man's-foot. This is so because the North American Indians saw the rapid migration of this plant brought by the "white man." The footprint of the plantain was felt as the English colonizer was stepping on their lands.

Not in vain this circumstance, in general lines, reveals the type of environment in which the plantain develops and also how it expands in the biosphere.

In Europe, plantain is found more in crevices of passable roads, such as roads, trails, sidewalks and pavements where both vehicles and human beings circulate.

On the other hand, in America it is more common to see that this plant grows in crops such as alfalfa and in humid environments; In Mexico, in fact, the plantain does not resist footprints.

In relation to bioclimatic areas, particularly those of Mexico, the plantain is located, for example, in Puebla, where pine and oak forests abound; that is without counting cloud and mountain ecosystems (that is, mesophilic forests).

The plantain, by the way, can be seen at various altitudes ranging from 350 to 2,050 meters above sea level, especially if it is in temperate zones (neither very cold nor very hot climate).

Ecology and biology

Both the dispersal and the germination and propagation of plantain occur through roots and seeds. The germination process can be intermittent and go between the months of April to September.

The life cycle of this plant is much more permanent. It is said to be perennial or annual. Its flowering can occur between spring until the end of summer. There can be flowers and fruits all year round in places like Veracruz or El Bajío.

Also, the plantain has a fruit production that can last until the middle of autumn if it begins in early summer.

Pollination of this angiosperm plant can occur through the wind (or as they say in botanical terms, an anemophilic pollination); and not so much through the intervention of animals such as insects, birds and mammals.

Impact and control

The appearance of plantain in various crops can be detrimental to them. It can damage their growth and consequently the development of agriculture.

This plant can arise in areas where items such as corn, chili, alfalfa, grains, vegetables in general and sugar cane have been planted. In this sense the plantain acts properly as a weed.

The use of herbicides can be very useful to eradicate the birth of the plantain in unwanted spaces where the integrity of the crops can be compromised.

Dicamba is one of the most used chemicals in the elimination of this plant when it becomes a plant parasite. Others of the same nature such as 2,4-DB or MCPA also work.

Medicinal properties

It is worth mentioning that the plantain is a plant that stands out neither for its origin, nor for its adaptability to the environment, but for its medicinal properties. Plantain, therefore, is often used as an astringent; that is, it is used as a tissue healing.

For its antiseptic, antibiotic and anti-inflammatory properties, plantain is used to treat ulcers. It is also used to treat inflammation in the eyes and spots that appear on the skin.

References

1. Allaby, Michael (2006). A Dictionary of Plant Sciences, 3rd edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
2. Bailey, Jill (1999). The Penguin dictionary of plant sciences. London: Penguin Books.
3. Herbarium of the Public University of Navarra (2015a). Flora Arvense de Navarra; family Plantaginaceae. Navarra, Spain: University of Navarra. Recovered from unavarra.es.
4. (2015b). Flora Arvense de Navarra; Plantago major L.: plantain major. Navarra, Spain: University of Navarra. Recovered from unavarra.es.
5. Hypertexts of the Biology Area (2013). Botanical Consultation Guide II; Plantaginaceae. Corrientes, Argentina: Universidad Nacional del Nordeste, Faculty of Exact and Natural Sciences and Surveying. Recovered from biologia.edu.ar.
6. Math Science Nucleus (No year). Life Cycle: Diversity in a Balance, Dictionary. California, United States: Childen's Natural History Museum. Recovered from msnucleus.org.
7. Mondragón Pichardo, Juana (2004). Plantaginaceae; Plantago major, Plantain major. Mexico DF, Mexico: Conabio. Recovered from conabio.gob.mx.
8. S. National Plant Germplasm System (2017). Family: Plantaginaceae Juss., Nom. cons. Washington DC, United States: United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. Recovered from npgsweb.ars-grin.gov.