By Burt Glover

I’m smitten. My love interest? A plant that grows in my backyard: plantain — specifically, Plantago lanceolata. 

Anybody with a lawn is most likely familiar with the plant. Insert your groans here if you’ve ever done battle trying to extricate it from your yard. Like so many introduced, non-native plants species, it favors disturbed land, which is why plantain seems to grow almost everywhere.

There are actually two types of plantain common to our area — Plantago lanceolata and Plantago major — both of which share the same purported medicinal benefits. P. major has broad, lance-shaped leaves with a lower, sometimes flat growth habit, whereas whereas the P. lanceolata has an upright, lily-like habit and long, flat, lance-shaped leaves with four or five ribs growing parallel to the leaf’s midrib. If these descriptions do not ring a bell, what is more familiar is the small rocket-shaped seed heads at the end of the plant’s long stems. 

My first introduction to plantain was as a child. Playing in the yard, we fellows would pick the long stem with the seed head, then — after forming a V-shaped “catapult” with lower stem — we’d thread the upper stem through the lower and give it a quick yank to shoot the seed head toward the intended foe. War games were simpler in those days. 

Fast forward to last week — Friday, to be exact — when I awoke with a painful gum infection. Having almost died 14 years ago from a runaway dental infection that required surgery and several days in the hospital, I was especially dismayed that this arose on the Friday. It would take days to get into a dentist’s office.

At the same time, I knew I had a patch of plantain in the yard — an herb that has spared me, on more than one occasion over the past several years, a trip to the dentist. Plantain has a long history of use with drawing out deep infections and reducing inflammation. I hoped that using it would at least carry me through the weekend.

Non-native plantain was brought to North America by the Puritans, who cultivated it for its highly regarded medicinal value. The leaves and plant extracts have historically been used for a host of maladies including bronchitis, coughs, burns, urinary tract infections, dermatitis, insect stings, poison ivy, eczema, and more. Some studies have shown potential for anti-tumor activity. 

Here, I must insert a caveat. Some wild plants can sicken or kill you. It takes time, research and experience to become a knowledgeable forager. I’ve been doing this for many years. When I began, there were only a few that I could positively identify, and that was exciting. Others, I learned over time, sometimes taking a few years to thoroughly familiarize myself with their growth habits, timing, flower forms, etc. to make a positive identification. There are so many online resources to assist in this process. The assistance of a knowledgeable, seasoned forager is highly advised. Lastly, nothing in this post is intended to, nor should, replace the advice or care of a qualified medical professional.

I went out to the backyard late Friday and picked some choice leaves. After rinsing them off, I chewed them up (I’ve read that enzymes in the saliva assist in the activation of the helpful compounds in the leaf), then shaped the wad into a poultice and placed it onto the infected area, holding it in place with my cheek for two hours. That evening, the pain and swelling were much improved. The next morning, I picked some more leaves and repeated, holding it to the area for four hours. The pain and swelling were completely gone by Saturday evening. I have had no problems with that area since. 

There are many other properties that I have yet to explore (and hopefully won’t have the need to), such as the laxative effects of the seeds. Plantain seed heads contain psyllium, an ingredient in many commonly-used, over-the-counter preparations. 

While I no longer catapult the seed heads toward friendly foes, I find it highly amusing to sit in my chair and watch the bees negotiate these plants in my backyard. The bumblebees alight on the tall flower stalks, which sink to the ground with the weight of the bees. Then, it’s on to the next. I read that birds also take advantage of their seeds, but this I have yet to witness. 

As is the case with so many of the seemingly pesky weeds at our feet, there is much more to plantain that meets the eye. In addition to its history as a medicinal plant, plantain is edible and has high levels of vitamins C, A and K, beta carotene, anti-oxidants, calcium and magnesium. The younger leaves can be baked into nutritious kale chip-like snacks. They can also be cooked as a green, like spinach, or added raw to salads. Give this weed a chance, and you may find yourself falling in love, too.    

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Contributor Burt Glover became an accidental naturalist during his earliest childhood days exploring the dirt roads, backyards, polo field and barns of the Magnolia-Knox-Mead neighborhood of 1950s Aiken. Birds are his first love, and he can identify an impressive range by song alone. He asserts that he is an observer, not an expert, on the topics of his writings, which range from birds, box turtles, frogs and foraging, to wasps, weeds, weather and beyond.