Plantaginaceae

Plantaginaceae [‚plan·tə·jə′nās·ē‚ē]

(botany)

The single family of the plant order Plantaginales.

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Plantaginaceae 

(plantain), a family of dicotyledonous plants, including perennial and annual herbs and, sometimes, branching subshrubs and shrubs. The leaves are often gathered in a basal rosette and have arcuate or almost parallel venation. The tiny, regular flowers are usually bisexual; they are gathered in capitate or spiculate inflorescences. The calyx is four-lobed or quadrisect. The papery corolla is usually four-lobate or quadri-dentate; rarely is it three-lobed. The ovary is superior. The fruit is a capsule, opening, as a rule, by an apical cap; less frequently it is nutlike. There are three genera, comprising more than 250 species. Most of the species belong to the genus Plantago. The USSR has approximately 30 species of Plantago and one species of the genus Littorella.

REFERENCES

Grigor’ev, lu. S. “Podorozhnikovye—Plantaginaceae Lindl.” In Flora SSSR [vol.] 23. Moscow-Leningrad, 1958.
Takhtadzhian, A. L. Sistema i filogeniia tsvetkovykh rastenii. Moscow-Leningrad, 1966.