Broadleaf plantain
Plantago major
Also called Common plantain, White man's footprint
We do not have a Blackfoot or Cree name for this one yet. Tell us the name and we will add it, with your word on where it comes from.
A low rosette of ribbed oval leaves that grows in paths, yards and hard ground. Not native here, it arrived with settlement, and it has been taken up widely as a poultice plant for bites and scrapes.
Commonly shared knowledge. Learn it, gather it, and follow the protocol.
Take care
- Never gather from roadside gravel, sprayed lawns, or ditches beside fields.
What it is confused with
Easily confusedNarrowleaf plantain Plantago lanceolata
Same plant family and used the same way, but with long narrow leaves rather than broad ovals.
How to know it
- Leaves
- Broad ovals in a flat rosette on the ground, with three to seven strong parallel veins running the length of the leaf.
- Veins
- Tear a leaf slowly and the veins pull out as tough strings. This is the giveaway.
- Flowers
- A narrow greenish spike on a leafless stalk from the middle of the rosette, with no petals worth the name.
- Where
- Trodden ground, path edges, gravel, lawns. It thrives on being walked on.
The country it grows in
- Roadsides and disturbed ground
- Open prairie
Landscape types only. We do not publish where a patch is, and we are not going to.
When it is ready
- Leaves May to September
Right now it is July. Something on this plant is in season.
What it is used for
- Skin and wounds
- Teaching with youth
Bruised leaves laid on insect bites, stings and small scrapes are one of the most widely documented uses of this plant anywhere.
Honest note: this is an introduced plant, not one of the plants that has always been here. It is included because it is common, safe to identify, and genuinely useful.
How it is prepared
- Poultice
A leaf is bruised or chewed and held on a bite or a small scrape.
Minor bites and scrapes only. Anything spreading, hot, or not healing needs a clinician.
Protocol
Ask the plant first, and offer something before you take anything. Tobacco is what is most often offered here. Say who you are, and say what the medicine is for.
Harvest the mature plants and leave the small ones to grow. Never take the first plant you find, and never take all of them.
Take only what you will actually use. Medicine picked and then left to rot in a bag was taken for nothing.
Leave the ground as you found it. Put back any dirt you dug up, and return any plant material you do not use to the earth.
Do not gather beside roads, highways or trails, where the plants take up whatever has been sprayed or spilled there.
If you are not certain what a plant is, do not pick it and do not put it in your mouth. Ask someone. Being wrong in the field is how people get hurt.
This one grows in yards and along paths, so ask before picking on somebody else’s ground, and do not pick where dogs run or where anything has been sprayed.