Plantago australisLam.

Mexican plantain

WFO wfo-0000487655 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Plantago australis, photographed by Florencia Grattarola
fig. a Florencia Grattarola, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-05-07 / obs. 195785486

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.

The specimen a real sheet, in a real collection

Herbarium
The New York Botanical Garden
Accession
423554
Filed as
Plantago australis subsp. hirtella (Kunth) Rahn
Det. by
S. F. Smith 1987-01-01
Collected
M. Poloni 1987-10-24
Origin
BR
The sheet
View the digitised specimen (CC BY 4.0)

A real pressed plant, in a real collection, under the accession number above. Not an illustration of one. The holding institution does not serve this sheet’s image to third parties, so there is no photograph here. The record is real and the link goes to it. Where we hold no openly licensed sheet for a species this section is simply absent, and where a sheet never recorded who determined it, that field stays empty rather than being filled in. Roughly half of all herbarium sheets never recorded a determiner, which is ordinary.

Native range 30 botanical countries

Regions where Plantago australis is native: Arizona, Mexico Central, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southeast, Mexico Southwest, Argentina Northeast, Argentina Northwest, Argentina South, Bolivia, Brazil South, Brazil Southeast, Brazil West-Central, Chile Central, Chile North, Chile South, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Juan Fernández Is., Nicaragua, Panamá, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela ArizonaMexico CentralMexico GulfMexico NortheastMexico NorthwestMexico SoutheastMexico SouthwestArgentina NortheastArgentina NorthwestArgentina SouthBoliviaBrazil SouthBrazil SoutheastBrazil West-CentralChile CentralChile NorthChile SouthColombiaCosta RicaEcuadorEl SalvadorGuatemalaHondurasNicaraguaPanamáParaguayPeruUruguayVenezuela
Native distribution of Plantago australis, 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.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Argentina Northeast AGE SOUTHERN AMERICA
Argentina Northwest AGW
Argentina South AGS
Bolivia BOL
Brazil South BZS
Brazil Southeast BZL
Brazil West-Central BZC
Chile Central CLC
Chile North CLN
Chile South CLS
Colombia CLM
Costa Rica COS
Ecuador ECU
El Salvador ELS
Guatemala GUA
Honduras HON
Juan Fernández Is. JNF
Nicaragua NIC
Panamá PAN
Paraguay PAR
Peru PER
Uruguay URU
Venezuela VEN
Arizona ARI NORTHERN AMERICA
Mexico Central MXC
Mexico Gulf MXG
Mexico Northeast MXE
Mexico Northwest MXN
Mexico Southeast MXT
Mexico Southwest MXS

Not drawn on the map: Juan Fernández Is.. We hold no public-domain boundary for this region, so it is listed rather than guessed at.

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.

Where it actually grows measured, from 1,200 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 0.5 °C 6.8 °C 15.4 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 12.4 °C 20.3 °C 27.5 °C
Annual rainfall 743 mm 1,515 mm 4,345 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 36 mm 231 mm 624 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 1,200 research-grade observations of Plantago australis 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.

Also published as 103 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 accrescens Pilg.
  • Plantago asplundii Pilg.
  • Plantago australis subsp. brevipila Rahn
  • Plantago australis subsp. ecuadorensis (Pilg.) Rahn
  • Plantago australis subsp. macrostachys (Decne.) Rahn
  • Plantago australis subsp. supina (Pilg.) Rahn
  • Plantago bicallosa Decne.
  • Plantago bicallosa var. angustifolia Pilg.
  • Plantago brachypus Pilg.
  • Plantago calbucana Phil.
  • Plantago candollei Rapin
  • Plantago cantagallensis Zahlbr. ex Wawra
  • Plantago carrenleofuensis Speg.
  • Plantago carrenleofuensis var. latifolia Pilg.
  • Plantago chilensis Desf.
  • Plantago cumingiana Fisch. & C.A.Mey.
  • Plantago cumingiana var. minor Pilg.
  • Plantago denudata Pilg.
  • Plantago deppeana Vatke
  • Plantago durvillei Delile ex Fisch. & C.A.Mey.
  • Plantago durvillei Delile ex Steud.
  • Plantago durvillei subsp. mollior (Pilg.) Pilg.
  • Plantago durvillei subsp. pflanzii (Pilg.) Pilg.
  • Plantago durvillei var. angustata Pilg.

and 79 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. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. 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.