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Plantago sericea; photograph (c) Staci Oré, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Staci Oré, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-05-17

Plantago sericea Ruiz & Pav.

Plantaginaceae · Mexico Northeast, Venezuela +5

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Plantago sericea, photograph (c) Staci Oré, some rights reserved (CC BY)Plantago sericea, photograph (c) Staci Oré, some rights reserved (CC BY)Plantago sericea, photograph (c) Staci Oré, some rights reserved (CC BY)Plantago sericea, photograph (c) Ariadna Tripaldi, some rights reserved (CC BY)Plantago sericea, photograph (c) Nicolás Baresch Uribe, some rights reserved (CC BY)Plantago sericea, photograph (c) Nicolás Baresch Uribe, some rights reserved (CC BY) 30 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Coldest month, mean nightly low
0.6°C
Jul at the habitat, not a floor; extremes not used (the weather cell's ground is too far off) CHELSA
Warmest month, mean daily high
13°C
Oct and Nov at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,470mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
30–38DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in the habitat's months, not shifted
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
A sharp rainy season, October to April (the habitat's months, not shifted), in a year of even temperature. rain rule, CHELSA
Not shifted: the shift rule does not apply to this habitat. The chart is in the habitat's months.

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 a sharp season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,031 mm of 1,339 mm) falls in October to April. The temperature curve is flat, 2.4 °C between the warmest and coldest month, so the growing-season rule does not infer a growing season from it. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere. The temperature curve moves under 4 °C between the warmest and coldest month, where the shift rule does not apply, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Rain

1,339 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,031 mm of it October to April. Wettest month March at 178 mm, driest month July at 46 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 486 mm to 2,594 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,470 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,339 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, southern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 30 to 38 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 26, the highest 90th-percentile month 52).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 0.6 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range -3.8 °C to 5.9 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 12.8 °C in November (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: none read. The nearest figure is 0.6 °C, the coldest month's mean nightly low, July, in the median year (CHELSA); a month's mean of its nightly lows is warmer than the nights a floor is read from. The daily extremes were read at a weather cell whose ground is too far above or below the typical spot to correct for, and are not used.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 59 to 66% 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. CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. No cold floor is read without a daily extremes series; the coldest month's mean nightly low named in its sentence is not one. 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, southern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Plantago sericea through the yearWarmest months October and November, mean daily high 13 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 0.6 °C; 1,339 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA. Habitat months, southern hemisphere.-5°0°5°10°15°20°frost°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 30–38RH 59–66%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 69 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C12 / 9–1512 / 9–1512 / 9–1512 / 9–1512 / 8–1511 / 8–1411 / 7–1412 / 8–1512 / 9–1613 / 9–1613 / 9–1612 / 9–15
Night °C4 / 0–74 / 0–84 / 1–83 / 0–72 / -2–71 / -3–61 / -4–61 / -3–61 / -2–62 / -1–73 / 0–84 / 0–8
Rain mm174 / 47–345176 / 62–276178 / 78–301140 / 13–31460 / 3–26472 / 3–19746 / 4–18357 / 5–19773 / 6–20595 / 9–242114 / 23–243154 / 48–241
DLI36 / 29–4336 / 29–4435 / 28–4232 / 27–4132 / 26–3830 / 26–3531 / 27–3735 / 30–4137 / 30–4738 / 30–5137 / 28–5236 / 28–49
RH %66 / 60–6966 / 60–7066 / 60–7064 / 53–7162 / 43–7060 / 38–7059 / 38–7059 / 39–6860 / 44–6762 / 47–6863 / 50–6864 / 56–69

The daily extremes were not used: the correction for elevation, +1049 m, is beyond the 1,000 m either way that a lapse rate is applied over, so the weather cell's ground is other terrain than the typical spot's. So no cold floor is read for this species, and the coldest month's mean nightly low is not taken as one. What that cell gave, so corrected, over 44 years: absolute minimum -6.2 °C, 1st-percentile night -3.9 °C.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 69 grid cells holding the 87 in-range records, 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 1830:2023 (-1.525, -78.825). 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 69 distinct grid cells holding 87 of the 87 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1830:2023 (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 -1.50_-78.750, lapse-corrected +1049 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 4052 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.
NativeMexico Northeast, Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Argentina Northwest · 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 marker-22.888, -65.249 · in the densest population, 143 records (49% of those in range)
Kew's description“perennial” · “montane tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 289 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 87 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 226 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 649 km away. 2 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 202 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 4° block of the 289 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 sericea, photograph 1did not loadPlantago sericea, photograph 2did not loadPlantago sericea, photograph 3did not loadPlantago sericea, photograph 4did not loadPlantago sericea, photograph 5did not loadPlantago sericea, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Staci Oré, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Ariadna Tripaldi, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Nicolás Baresch Uribe, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).

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

Gentiana sedifolia Gentiana sedifolia Gentianaceae Photo: CC BY, Andrés Romero BravoMuehlenbeckia volcanica Muehlenbeckia volcanica Polygonaceae Photo: CC BY, Yuri SofronovWerneria nubigena Werneria nubigena Asteraceae Photo: CC BY, Dick Culbert from Gibsons, B.C., CanadaFuchsia apetala Fuchsia apetala Onagraceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Thibaud AronsonSiphocampylus tupaeformis Siphocampylus tupaeformis Campanulaceae Photo: CC BY, Nolan ExeMyriophyllum quitense Myriophyllum quitense Andean water milfoil Photo: CC BY, Mirko Duimich

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 arenaria Plantago arenaria Branched plantain Photo: CC BY, bernhard_hillerPlantago 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 Hooper all 52 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Plantago frigida; Plantago monticola subsp. herrerai; Plantago sericea var. sericea. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataiNaturalist

The record

Family
Plantaginaceae
Described by
Ruiz & Pav.
Native to
Mexico Northeast, Venezuela, Bolivia +4
Wild records
289 in range · 226 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
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -1.50_-78.750, lapse-corrected +1049 m at 6.5 °C/km; read, and set aside: the correction for elevation, +1049 m, is beyond the 1,000 m either way that a lapse rate is applied over, so the weather cell's ground is other terrain than the typical spot's, so no cold floor is shown
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22found by its label; its IPNI identifier 685641-1 is Kew's for Plantago sericea Ruiz & Pav.
Wikipedia wikipedia nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22
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 2026-10-22none of the photographs on this page is credited to GBIF: those shown are other sources', and GBIF's were the same photographs or were set aside by the photograph rules
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 38 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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