Plantago depressa Seeds | Depression Plantain
LATIN NAME: Plantago depressa
COMMON NAME: Depression Plantain
Plant Profile
Depression plantain is a low, rosette-forming perennial of the plantain family, native to the waysides, dry banks and trampled ground of East Asia. It grows ten to thirty centimetres, with narrow, strongly ribbed, grey-green leaves pressed close to the ground and short, dense spikes of small brownish flowers that rise through the summer.
The rosette hugs the soil so closely that a mower passes over it, and the plant survives trampling that kills most herbs. The leaves are slightly hairy and have five to seven prominent veins, and the roots are a mass of fine fibres rather than a taproot. It is one of the first plants to appear on compacted ground and one of the last to leave it.
Science & Biotechnology
The plantains are a small family with a remarkable record of dispersal: Plantago major and Plantago lanceolata have followed Europeans to every temperate country, and their seed travels in mud on boots and tyres. Plantago depressa is the East Asian counterpart of these weeds, and it occupies the same niche in compacted, dry, disturbed ground.
The seed coat swells into a mucilage layer when it is wetted, which lets the seed stick to the soil surface and hold water while it germinates. That mucilage is the same material, chemically, that makes psyllium a bulk laxative and a cholesterol-lowering fibre, and the seeds of the Chinese plantains are collected for the same purpose.
Uses & Benefits
The seed, known as che qian zi, is a standard Chinese medicine, used for damp-heat conditions and as a mild diuretic, and it is also eaten as a fibre supplement. The leaves are used fresh or dried as a tea, and they were traditionally applied as a poultice to bites, stings and small wounds.
In a garden it is a plant for a gravel path, a dry lawn or a patch of hard, compacted ground, where its flat rosettes are neat and its spikes unobtrusive. It is not a showy plant, but it is a useful one for a wildlife corner, since the seed feeds finches and the leaves are eaten by several moths. It self-sows freely and can become a lawn weed.
Growing from Seed
Sow in spring or autumn on the surface of a fine compost, and press the seed in without covering it, since it needs light. Keep the surface damp; the mucilage helps the seed hold water, and germination follows in ten to fourteen days at 15-20 °C.
Plant out in any soil, in sun or part shade, and water until established. The plant tolerates compaction, drought and mowing, and it needs no feeding. To keep it from spreading through a lawn, cut the spikes before the seed ripens, or grow it in a pot or a gravel bed where its self-sowing is contained and its rosettes can be seen.
Our Take
A flat, tough rosette for hard ground, with a long medicinal record and a seed that swells into mucilage. Grow it where the mower goes.
Related Reading
Gardeners who grow Depression Plantain often pair it with these related subjects: