plantain (redirected from plantain tree)

plantain (plăn`tĭn), any plant of the genus Plantago, chiefly annual or perennial weeds of wide distribution. Many species are lawn pests and the pollen is often a hay fever irritant. P. psyllium, called psyllium, or fleawort, is cultivated in Spain and France for its mucilaginous seed-coatings, exported under the name psyllium seed for use as a laxative. In the United States wild plantains are occasionally utilized locally for forage. The name plantain is also used for a starchy form of the banana; the water plantain, Alisma plantago-aquatica, is another unrelated species. Plantains are classified in the division Magnoliophyta, class Magnoliopsida, order Plantaginales, family Plantaginaceae.

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plantain

Any of about 265 species of familiar garden, lawn, and roadside weeds in the genus Plantago of the family Plantaginaceae. Distinctively, the leaves lack a proper blade. What appears to be a blade is an expanded petiole (leafstalk), with several parallel main veins, emerging at the base of the stalk. Small flowers are borne in spikes or heads atop long leafless stalks. The greater plantain (P. major) provides seed spikes for bird food. Ribwort, or English, plantain (P. lanceolata) and hoary plantain (P. media) are troublesome weeds. Some species have been useful in medicine (e.g., as an ingredient in laxatives).

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plantain

Tall plant (Musa paradisiaca) of the banana family that is closely related to the common banana (M. sapientum). Believed to have originated in Southeast Asia, the plantain grows 10–33 ft (3–10 m) tall and has a conical false “trunk” formed by the leaf sheaths of its spirally arranged, long, thin leaves. The green-coloured fruit is larger than that of the banana and contains more starch. Because the starch is maximal before the fruit ripens, the fruit is not eaten raw but is boiled or fried, often with coconut juice or sugar as flavouring. It may also be dried for later use in cooking or ground for use as meal, which can be further refined to a flour. The plantain is a staple food and beer-making crop for East African peoples and is also eaten in the Caribbean and Latin America.

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plantain¹

any of various N temperate plants of the genus Plantago, esp P. major (great plantain), which has a rosette of broad leaves and a slender spike of small greenish flowers: family Plantaginaceae

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plantain²

1. a large tropical musaceous plant, Musa paradisiaca

2. the green-skinned banana-like fruit of this plant, eaten as a staple food in many tropical regions