Common name: Star Plantain
Plantago muelleri Pilg. APNI*
Description: Perennial herb, with adventitious roots; glabrous except for the pilose scapes.
Leaves basal, lamina elliptic to lanceolate, mostly 2.5–8 cm long, 7–15 mm wide, 3-veined, thick, glossy, margins entire or with a few inconspicuous teeth.
Scapes 1–2 mm long at flowering, elongating in fruit to equal the leaves; spike ± capitate, 2–13-flowered, hidden among the leaf bases at flowering stage; bracts ovate, 2.4–3.5 mm long. Sepals elliptic, 2.5–3.5 mm long, glabrous, with a narrow keel. Corolla lobes elliptic to ovate, 1.4–2 mm long.
Capsule ellipsoid to globose, 2.5–4 mm long; seeds up to 4.
Flowering: December–March
Distribution and occurrence: Grows in fen, along stream banks and below snow patches, in the alpine and subalpine zones of Kosciusko plateau and Brindabella Ra.; ST.
NSW subdivisions: ST
Other Australian states: Vic.
Text by B. G. Briggs Taxon concept: Flora of NSW 3 (1992)
APNI* Provides a link to the Australian Plant Name Index (hosted by the Australian National Botanic Gardens) for comprehensive bibliographic data ***The AVH map option provides a detailed interactive Australia wide distribution map drawn from collections held by all major Australian herbaria participating in the Australian Virtual Herbarium project.
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