Ribworth Plantain
Latin: Plantago lanceolata
Irish: Slánlus
This perennial is found in nearly all of the waste places around the course.
It is a very common weed, distinctive in its long leaves with several almost parallel veins and its compact blackish-brown flower heads.
It normally flowers during May to August and during that time many of the heads show a band of open flowers with cream-coloured anthers extruded.
This is considered to be a native species but its historical record points to the difficulty in distinguishing between the true native and one that was introduced from elsewhere in the far distant past. The ancient pollen record preserved in our bogs indicate that seeds of Ribworth Plantain may have first come to Ireland as contaminants in the primitive wheats that the first farmers brought with them some 6,000 years ago.
