PLANT: Annual herbs to 10 cm tall.

LEAVES: without a distinct petiole; blades linear, 1.5-7 cm long, ca. 1 mm wide, attenuate at base, acute at apex, sparsely pubescent, with no evidence of venation, with entire margins.

PEDUNCLES: 2.6-16 cm long, sparsely to densely villous, usually becoming densely villous just below the inflorescence.

SPIKES: 0.3-5.5 cm long, sometimes interrupted at base; bracts ovate, 1.5-2.2 mm long, broadly scarious-margined; midvein thick and usually ridged, glabrous.

FLOWERS: perfect; sepals broadly ovate, 1.2-2.0 mm long, half as long as capsule, broadly scarious-margined; midvein thick, glabrous; corolla lobes spreading or reflexed, triangular to narrowly ovate, 0.5-0.7 mm long; stamens 2.

CAPSULE: breaking at middle.

SEEDS: 6-14, narrowly elliptic, acute at both ends, ca 1.2 mm long, ca. 0.3 mm wide, dark brown to black, the inner surface flat to slightly convex, the outer surface areolate.

NOTES: Desert grasslands and washes: Cochise, Pima, Pinal cos.; 750-1400 m (2500-4500 ft.); Feb-Apr.; British Columbia, Alberta, Can.; MT, to OR, s to TX, LA, FL.

REFERENCES: Huisinga, Kristin D. and Tina J. Ayers. 1999. Plantaginaceae. Ariz. - Nev. Acad. Sci. 32(1).

Much like no. 11 [Plantago pusilla Nutt.], but a little larger in all respects, and with a well developed slender taproot; subdioecious; cal to 2 mm; cor-lobes 0.5-1 mm, in age usually spreading or reflexed; fr 2-3 mm; seeds 1-2 mm; 2n=12. Moist, somewhat alkaline places; Man. and w. Minn. to B.C., s. to Okla. and Calif.

Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

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