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Plantago arenaria; photograph (c) bernhard_hiller, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) bernhard_hiller, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-09-05

Plantago arenaria Waldst. & Kit.

Branched plantain; French psyllium; Sand plantain

Plantaginaceae · Austria, Czechoslovakia +37

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Plantago arenaria, photograph (c) bernhard_hiller, some rights reserved (CC BY)Plantago arenaria, photograph (c) bernhard_hiller, some rights reserved (CC BY)Plantago arenaria, photograph (c) Sam Turner, some rights reserved (CC BY)Plantago arenaria, photograph (c) Eric Schmidt, some rights reserved (CC BY)Plantago arenaria, photograph (c) Eric Schmidt, some rights reserved (CC BY)Plantago arenaria, photograph (c) Eric Schmidt, some rights reserved (CC BY) 79 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-5.5°C
Record low -14.0 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
25°C
Jul at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
763mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
6–37DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Rain spread: 70% of the median year's rain takes 8 months, so no short rainy season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Plantago indica, commonly known as branched plantain, sand plantain, or black psyllium, is a flowering plant in the plantain family Plantaginaceae, and is one of a group of species in the genus Plantago formerly treated by some authors in a separate genus Psyllium. The plant is native to parts of Africa, Europe, Russia, and Asia, and is naturalised in many other areas such as Australia and North America. The plant can be found mostly in dry inland areas, such as those that are sandy, and also grows on roadsides and in meadows. The plant is not used broadly as a food source, but has been cultivated for its seeds which serve a medicinal use as a laxative.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Plantago indica", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Plantago

Plantago is a genus of about 200 species of flowering plants in the family Plantaginaceae, commonly called plantains or fleaworts. The common name plantain is shared with the unrelated cooking plantain. Most are herbaceous plants, though a few are subshrubs growing to 60 centimetres tall.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Plantago", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads no short rainy season: 70% of the median year's rain (537 mm of 758 mm) takes 8 months, September to January and May to July. Mean temperature moves 16.6 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to January and March to July.

Rain

758 mm in the median year at the habitat, 537 mm of it September to January and May to July. Wettest month October at 76 mm, driest month February at 51 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 579 mm to 1,020 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 763 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 758 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 6 to 37 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 4, the highest 90th-percentile month 44).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -5.5 °C, the absolute minimum -14.0 °C, 2,326 frost nights in 44 years, 52.9 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 36.2 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 0.7 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range -4.2 °C to 3.4 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 24.5 °C in July (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -5.5 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 57 to 67% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected -104 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Plantago arenaria through the yearWarmest month July, mean daily high 25 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 0.7 °C; 758 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°frost36.2° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-14.0° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125mm rainDLI 6–37RH 57–67%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 800 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C7 / 2–108 / 3–1111 / 7–1415 / 13–1619 / 18–2122 / 20–2525 / 23–2824 / 22–2821 / 18–2316 / 13–1910 / 7–137 / 3–10
Night °C1 / -4–31 / -4–43 / 0–65 / 4–810 / 9–1213 / 12–1615 / 14–1815 / 14–1812 / 11–159 / 6–124 / 2–72 / -3–4
Rain mm62 / 39–8651 / 35–6853 / 36–7057 / 35–8669 / 50–9862 / 40–8263 / 34–7960 / 38–7763 / 48–10476 / 39–12170 / 47–11372 / 47–103
DLI7 / 5–1113 / 10–1720 / 17–2629 / 27–3334 / 32–3937 / 33–4337 / 33–4432 / 28–3824 / 19–2915 / 11–188 / 6–126 / 4–9
RH %66 / 61–6964 / 59–6661 / 57–6359 / 56–6059 / 56–6158 / 55–6057 / 53–6058 / 54–6060 / 57–6264 / 60–6566 / 61–6867 / 61–70
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 800 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (893 records in those cells; 11 more cells hold records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cells are left out), with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 907:3689 (44.625, 4.475). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -14.0 °C, 1st-percentile night -5.5 °C, 99th-percentile day 36.2 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 800 distinct grid cells holding 893 of the 904 in-range records (11 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 907:3689 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 44.50_4.375, lapse-corrected -104 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 381 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeAustria, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Corse, France, Sardegna, Spain, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Kriti, Romania, Turkey-in-Europe, Yugoslavia, Belarus, Krym, Central European Russia, East European Russia, South European Russia, Ukraine, Egypt, Libya, Altay, West Siberia, Kazakhstan, Kirgizistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, North Caucasus, Transcaucasus, East Aegean Is., Iran, Lebanon-Syria, Palestine, Sinai, Turkey · introduced: Great Britain, Ireland, Belgium, Netherlands, Switzerland, Baltic States, Khabarovsk, Primorye, China South-Central, Manchuria, China North-Central, China Southeast, Tibet, Xinjiang, Pakistan, Thailand, British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario, Québec, Oregon, Washington, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Vermont, California, Delaware, North Carolina, Virginia, Argentina Northeast · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker46.635, 3.327 · in the densest population, 514 records (48% of those in range)
Kew's description“annual” · “temperate” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1073 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 893 of them in the land cells it reads, of 904 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 754 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 63 km away. 313 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 169 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 2° block of the 1073 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Plantago arenaria, photograph 1did not loadPlantago arenaria, photograph 2did not loadPlantago arenaria, photograph 3did not loadPlantago arenaria, photograph 4did not loadPlantago arenaria, photograph 5did not loadPlantago arenaria, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) bernhard_hiller, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Sam Turner, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Eric Schmidt, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Silene baccifera Silene baccifera Caryophyllaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedHerniaria hirsuta Herniaria hirsuta Hairy rupturewort Photo: CC BY, LjažDysphania botrys Dysphania botrys Jerusalem oak goosefoot Photo: CC BY, Don LoarieVallisneria spiralis Vallisneria spiralis Tapegrass Photo: CC BY, DDutreyLathyrus hirsutus Lathyrus hirsutus Hairy vetchling Photo: CC BY, saltyhikerNajas minor Najas minor Brittle water-nymph Photo: CC BY, Zoltán Nagy

Other Plantago 51 in the reference

Plantago afra Plantago afra Glandular plantain Photo: CC BY, Duarte FradePlantago albicans Plantago albicans Plantaginaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Collados AnaPlantago alpina Plantago alpina Alpine Plantain Photo: CC BY, Louis AuregliaPlantago altissima Plantago altissima Plantaginaceae Photo: CC BY, Ljaž Plantago antarctica Plantaginaceae Plantago arborescens Plantago arborescens Plantaginaceae Photo: CC BY, Vítor JorgePlantago argentea Plantago argentea Plantaginaceae Photo: CC BY, Paolo ZuccaPlantago aristata Plantago aristata Bracted plantain Photo: CC0, author not statedPlantago asiatica Plantago asiatica Asian plantain Photo: CC0, author not statedPlantago atrata Plantago atrata Mountain Plantain Photo: CC BY, Maria KohanovskayaPlantago australis Plantago australis Mexican plantain Photo: CC BY, Pluto HooperPlantago camtschatica Plantago camtschatica Kamchatka plantain Photo: CC BY, Nikita Lavrenov all 52 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Plantago arenaria f. rossica; Plantago cynops; Plantago indica var. rossica; Plantago psyllium; Plantago scabra subsp. scabra. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Plantaginaceae
Described by
Waldst. & Kit.
Native to
Austria, Czechoslovakia, Germany +36
Wild records
1073 in range · 754 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 26 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (12 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 1 at a herbarium, 13 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 44.50_4.375, lapse-corrected -104 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22IPNI and POWO linked by Kew's number for Plantago arenaria Waldst. & Kit. (the item's: IPNI 684879-1, POWO 684878-1)
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22Wikipedia redirects Plantago arenaria to Plantago indica, a name GBIF holds as a synonym of this species
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 198 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…