RIBWORT PLANTAIN (Plantago lanceolata)

A weed is a plant that has mastered every survival skill except for learning how to grow in rows.

Doug Larson

…..and the last grass I’ll be sharing this week is Ribwort Plantain (Plantago lanceolata).   I just double-checked its name and it seems to have quite a few.

I know it as Ribwort.  I’ve photographed it many times, but the image I like best is the one below as it has a more interesting background than my other photos.

Besides, it is the only one in my GRASS – Ribwort folder 😀 ), so with our current heatwave here in Melbourne making me rather lethargic toward wading through my Photo Library to find some other photos, this image will do.

RIBWORT or RIBGRASS (Plantago lanceolata L.)

Very closely related to Plantago Major, it’s very tolerant and can adapt to extreme condition. This plant can actually live anywhere from very dry meadows to places similar to a rain forest, roadsides, open woodlands and grasslands.

When I was studying Herbal Medicine in the early 1990s, I vaguely remember it being noted for its blood-staunching properties.   I was reading a great website this afternoon and copied the information straight across to this post in case you’d like to know a bit more.

 

MEDICINAL PROPERTIES

 

Same as his relative Common Plantain, Ribwort Plantain is a safe and effective treatment for bleeding, it quickly staunches blood flow and, as an antimicrobial, encourages the repair of damaged tissue to promote faster healing.

The heated leaves are used as a wet dressing for wounds or skin inflammations, and as an external antihistamine against  animal stings or bites.

The entire plant is astringent, demulcent and ophthalmic.  A distilled water made from the plant makes an excellent eye lotion. The leaves find also use as a nutritious tea rich of vitamins, minerals, mucilage and tannins.

Yet an other great wild medicinal plant and edible vegetable. For survivalists and woodsman this is a plant you must know because it can help heal wounds, prevent infection and the seeds can serve as a starchy food source.

 

CULINARY USE

Ribwort Plantain is a very nutritional leafy vegetable containing Calcium, and vitamins A,C, and K. Its young leaves are eaten raw, but larger leaves get tough and are much better cooked. Leaves have a slightly bitter flavour, which makes them more suitable to add to soups or salad, rather than consumed by themselves. Roots and seeds are also edible, usually cooked, same as the flower buds that work well for making a mushroom kind of taste stock.

 

WILD ARTICHOKE or ARTICHOKE THISTLE or CARDOON (Cynara cardunculus L.)

ARTICHOKE THISTLE, cardoon (Cynara cardunculus)

This is one of those random posts that pop up occasionally purely and simply because the images turned out well and exactly how I wanted them to appear.

Having a fence to sit the camera on was a bonus.  (or should I say actually having a camera in my bag after an appointment was a bonus as I rarely take a camera out shopping or for medical appointments these days).   When I lived on the southeast side of the city, I always took my 3 cameras out for a walk as I inevitably walked around, through or near the Royal Botanic Gardens or beautiful old residential gardens on that side of the city.

The Artichoke Thistle as it’s often called is a very stout perennial, up to 1.5 metres high with striking purple flowers.

I was walking down my steep road on the way home when the bright flowers caught my eye.

It is declared a noxious weed in Victoria (my state), Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia.   The leaves are very large and I was pleased to be able to lean over the black metal fence separating the enormous grass-covered field and my housing estate and capture the lovely purple flowers.