Syn.: Lagopus albicans (L.) Fourr.
Family: Plantaginaceae Juss.

Plantago albicans

Distribution: Mediterranean and Macaronesia (Canary Islands), eastward through Sinai, Jordan and Iran to Saudi Arabia and Yemen.

Ecology: It grows in dry and sunny, mostly sandy habitats, on embankments, roadsides, also in saline habitats, from coast up to 1300 m elevation. It blooms from March to July.

Plantago albicans

Description: Perennial herb, 10–60(–70) cm tall. Leaves alternate, linear-lanceolate to almost linear, 5–15(–20) cm long, 5–10(–20) mm wide, entire, often undulate, 3-veined, sericeous-lanate. Scape about twice as long as leaves, tomentose. Spikes 3–10 cm long, dense above, lax below. Flowers tetramerous; bracts 3.5–4.5 mm, ovate, shortly villous; sepals 3–4 mm, subequal, villous at least towards apex; corolla-lobes 3–4 mm long, ovate, glabrous. The fruit is a capsule, c. 4 mm.

Note: It is sometimes grown in rockeries.

Plantago albicansPlantago albicans
Plantago albicans

These images were taken in Cyprus, the British Sovereign Base Area of Akrotiri (March 28, 2010).