About Plantago triandra Berggr.
Plantago triandra Berggr. grows as small rosettes, with a primary root up to 12 mm thick. Each rosette can produce up to 62 generally angular-ovate leaves, with visible short rust-colored leaf axillary hairs shorter than 13 mm in the basal rosette. Each leaf has a single vein, measuring 8–61 mm long including the petiole and up to 11 mm wide. Leaves are sometimes punctate, glabrous on both surfaces, or have hair bands to sparsely hairy on the upper surface. Leaf apices are acute, and leaf margins are smooth, wavy, or bear up to 24 small to large teeth. The petiole is usually distinguishable from the leaf blade, and grows up to 23 mm long. Each rosette can have up to 22 erect inflorescences, which reach up to 41 mm in length. Scapes are smooth, and can be either glabrous or hairy. Spikes are globose, holding 1–3 densely crowded flowers. Each flower has a small broadly ovate to very broadly ovate bract that is usually glabrous. The calyx measures 0.3–1.7 mm long and 0.3–1.1 mm wide, and is mostly glabrous, only rarely bearing a hair at its apex. The corolla tube is 2.0–4.4 mm long, corolla lobes are 0.9–2.9 mm long, stamen filaments 1.7–6.8 mm long, anthers 0.7–1.4 mm long, and the style is 2.7–10.0 mm long and densely hairy. The ovary is 0.7–2.6 mm long, and contains up to 42 ovules. The fruit is a dry, dehiscent capsule with circumscissile dehiscence, shaped ellipsoid or globose, widest at the middle, 2.1–4.3 mm long and 1.5–3.9 mm wide. Each capsule holds 8–42 uniform rust or brown seeds 0.5–1.4 mm long, which are usually rhomboid or angular-ovoid. Plantago triandra flowers from December to May and fruits from December to June. Its chromosome number is 2n=48. This plantain is endemic to the North, South, Stewart and Chatham Islands of New Zealand. In the North Island, it occurs in the Auckland, Volcanic Plateau, Taranaki, and Southern North Island regions; on the South Island, it occurs in the Marlborough, Western Nelson, Westland, Canterbury, Otago, Fiordland, and Southland regions. It grows in coastal banks, cliffs, herbfields, dunes and rock outcrops in damp or wet areas, from sea level up to 1,520 m (4,990 ft) above sea level. It may also grow on bowling or golf course greens.
