Plantago afraL.

glandular plantain

WFO wfo-0000478117 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Plantago afra, photographed by Quentin Groom
fig. a Quentin Groom, CC0 1.0 / 2022-05-17 / obs. 198343134
Plantago afra, photographed by Tim Johnson
fig. b Tim Johnson, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 188039283
Plantago afra, photographed by Tim Johnson
fig. c Tim Johnson, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 187243023
Plantago afra, photographed by Duarte Frade
fig. d Duarte Frade, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 187217036
Plantago afra, photographed by Duarte Frade
fig. e Duarte Frade, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 186184776
Plantago afra, photographed by Yves Bas
fig. f Yves Bas, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 186418626
Plantago afra, photographed by Tim Johnson
fig. g Tim Johnson, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 186415402
Plantago afra, photographed by Tim Johnson
fig. h Tim Johnson, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 184078530

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 44 botanical countries

Regions where Plantago afra is native: Algeria, Canary Is., Cape Verde, Chad, Egypt, Libya, Madeira, Morocco, Niger, Selvagens, Somalia, Sudan-South Sudan, Tanzania, Tunisia, Western Sahara, Afghanistan, Cyprus, East Aegean Is., Gulf States, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon-Syria, Oman, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Sinai, Türkiye, Turkmenistan, Yemen, Pakistan, Albania, Baleares, Bulgaria, Corse, France, Greece, Italy, Kriti, NW. Balkan Pen., Portugal, Sardegna, Sicilia, Spain, Türkiye-in-Europe AlgeriaChadEgyptLibyaMoroccoNigerSelvagensSomaliaSudan-South SudanTanzaniaTunisiaWestern SaharaAfghanistanCyprusEast Aegean Is.Gulf StatesIranIraqLebanon-SyriaOmanPalestineSaudi ArabiaSinaiTürkiyeTurkmenistanYemenPakistanAlbaniaBulgariaCorseFranceGreeceItalyKritiNW. Balkan Pen.PortugalSiciliaSpainTürkiye-in-Europe Canary Is.Cape VerdeMadeiraBalearesSardegna
Native distribution of Plantago afra, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Algeria ALG AFRICA
Canary Is. CNY
Cape Verde CVI
Chad CHA
Egypt EGY
Libya LBY
Madeira MDR
Morocco MOR
Niger NGR
Selvagens SEL
Somalia SOM
Sudan-South Sudan SUD
Tanzania TAN
Tunisia TUN
Western Sahara WSA
Afghanistan AFG ASIA-TEMPERATE
Cyprus CYP
East Aegean Is. EAI
Gulf States GST
Iran IRN
Iraq IRQ
Lebanon-Syria LBS
Oman OMA
Palestine PAL
Saudi Arabia SAU
Sinai SIN
Türkiye TUR
Turkmenistan TKM
Yemen YEM
Albania ALB EUROPE
Baleares BAL
Bulgaria BUL
Corse COR
France FRA
Greece GRC
Italy ITA
Kriti KRI
NW. Balkan Pen. YUG
Portugal POR
Sardegna SAR
Sicilia SIC
Spain SPA
Türkiye-in-Europe TUE
Pakistan PAK ASIA-TROPICAL

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Flowering 213 in flower of 249 examined

Peak flowering in Feb. Each bar is the share of Plantago afra observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 213 of 249 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 7 months have fewer than 5 examined observations, so no proportion is drawn for them. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Where it actually grows measured, from 1,143 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 0.4 °C 5.7 °C 11.5 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 22.6 °C 28.6 °C 33.7 °C
Annual rainfall 319 mm 619 mm 1,078 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 3 mm 38 mm 117 mm

It is found where winters are cool but frost is light or absent. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 1,143 research-grade observations of Plantago afra that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one. Climate from CHELSA V2.1 (Karger et al. 2017); occurrences from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Also published as 31 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Plantago afra var. parviflora (Desf.) Lewalle
  • Plantago afra var. sicula (C.Presl) Guss.
  • Plantago agrestis Salzm. ex Steud.
  • Plantago assoana Sennen
  • Plantago cynops L.
  • Plantago cynopsidea Schult.
  • Plantago cynopsis St.-Lag.
  • Plantago divaricata Zuccagni
  • Plantago durandoi Pomel
  • Plantago eriocarpa Viv. ex Coss.
  • Plantago garganica Decne.
  • Plantago parviflora Desf.
  • Plantago pseudopsyllium Desf.
  • Plantago psyllium var. bracteosa Willk.
  • Plantago psyllium var. dentifolia Willk.
  • Plantago psyllium var. dubia Knoche
  • Plantago psyllium var. durandoi (Pomel) Batt.
  • Plantago psyllium var. parviflora (Desf.) Batt.
  • Plantago psyllium var. sicula (J.Presl & C.Presl) Samp.
  • Plantago psyllium var. zwierleinii Nicotra
  • Plantago rigida Roem. & Schult.
  • Plantago rugosa Hochst. ex Steud.
  • Plantago sicula C.Presl
  • Plantago squalida Salisb.

and 7 more.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. USDA PLANTS Database. common name, checklist symbol PLAF. public domain. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.