Plantago lanceolata (Ribwort, Plantain)
Botanic Name Plantago lanceolata
Common Name Ribwort, Plantain, Snake Plantain, Black Plantain, Long Plantain, Ribble Grass, Black Jack, Jackstraw, Lamb’s Tongue, Hen Plant, Wendles, Kemps, Cocks, Quinquenervia, Costa Canina
Family Plantaginaceae
Habitat Very common on pastures, roadsides, banks, wasteplaces, preferring dry sandy soil, throughout Briatain and all the temperate world
Description A perennial plant that has erect, hairy, lanceolate leaves, which grow from the rootstock on margined petioles in a basal rosette. Several grooved flower stalks may grow from 6 to 30 inches high, tipped by a short spike of tune white flowers whose brownish sepals and bracts give the spike its predominantly dark colour.
Similar Plants Plantago major
Parts Used Leaves ( Seed Husks)
History Some old books call the species Costa canina in allusion to the prominent veinings in the leaves that earned it the name Ribwort and it is this feature that caused it to earn the mediaeval name of Quinquenervia
Another old popular name was ‘Kemps’. The stalks of the plant are particularly tough and wiry, and it is an old game with country children to strike the heads one against the other until the stalk breaks. The Anglo-Saxon word for a soldier was cempa, and we can thus see the allusion to kemps
The plant was at one time considered a fodder plant, but cultivation was never seriously taken up
Gelatinous substances extracted from the seeds has been used at one time in France for stiffening some kinds of muslin and other woven fabrics
Highly respected in folk medicine from Africa and Vietnam
Constituents Mucilage
Glycosides (including acubin)(
Tannins Silica, zinc, and high levels of potassium
