Plantago lanigera

Plantago lanigera plants are small rosettes with a primary root up to 9 mm thick, with up to 21 usually narrowly angular-ovate or angular-ovate leaves, and with visible, short (<15 mm long), rust-coloured leaf axillary hairs in the basal rosette. The leaves have 1–3 veins, are 12–64 mm long (including petiole) and up to 16 mm wide, usually punctate, usually sparsely to densely hairy on the upper surface, usually glabrous on the lower surface. The leaf has an acute or obtuse apex, and its edges are smooth or wavy or with up to 10 minute teeth. The petiole is usually distinguishable from the leaf lamina, and up to 28 mm long. Each rosette plant has up to 13 erect inflorescences which can be up to 116 mm long. The scapes are smooth and sparsely to densely hairy. The spikes are globose or ovoid with 1–9 densely crowded flowers. Each flower has 1 small bract that is broadly ovate to very broadly ovate and usually glabrous. The calyx is 2.0–3.4 mm long, 1.4–3.0 mm wide, glabrous. The corolla tube is 1.7–2.6 mm long, corolla lobes 1.1–2.3 mm long, stamen filaments 1.9–6.7 mm long, anthers 0.7–1.4 mm long, and style 2.6–6.8 mm long and densely hairy. The ovary is 0.6–1.7 mm long, with up to 13 ovules. The fruit is a dry, dehiscent capsule with circumsessile dehiscence, broadly ellipsoid, globose or ovoid, widest at or below middle, 1.8–4.2 mm long and 1.4–3.0 mm wide. …

Plantago lanigera is a plantain that is endemic to the North, South and Stewart Islands of New Zealand. In the North Island it is found in Taranaki and Southern North Island regions, whereas on the South Island it is found in Western Nelson, Westland, Canterbury, Otago, Fiordland and Southland regions. It grows in herbfields, grasslands and shrublands, in bogs, on the edges of streams and tarns, on rocks or ridges, in damp or wet areas, from 580 to 1820 m above sea level.