Pale Indian Plantain

Description:

This native perennial wildflower forms a rosette of basal leaves spanning up to 1' across. The basal leaves are up to 8" long and 6" across; they are oval-cordate or oval and their margins are undulate-angular to shallowly cleft. The petioles of the basal leaves are up to 6" long, light green, glabrous, and rather stout. The upper surfaces of the leaves are medium to dark green and glabrous, while their lower surfaces are pale greenish white to bright white. During the spring, an unbranched flowering stalk with alternate leaves develops; it becomes 3-9' tall. The central stalk is pale green to pale purple, terete, glabrous, and glaucous; fine longitudinal veins are often visible along this stalk. The alternate leaves are up to 8" long and 8" across, becoming gradually smaller as they ascend the central stalk. The leaves are mostly deltate-cordate, deltate-orbicular, or deltate-ovate; their margins are shallowly to moderately cleft with pointed lobes and to some extent undulate-angular. The upper and lower surfaces of the alternate leaves have the same characteristics as the basal leaves, and both types of leaves have palmate veins. The petioles along the central stalk are about as long as their leaves; they are light green and glabrous.

Habitat:

The preference is full sun to light shade, moist to dry-mesic conditions, and loamy, rocky, or sandy soil. This one was growing in an opening in a southern deciduous forest along the Modoc Trail in the Sumter National Forest near Modoc (McCormick County), SC.

Notes:

In order to set fertile seed, the florets require cross-pollination by insects. Such insect visitors are relatively few; they consist primarily of wasps, flies, and small bees, which are attracted to either the nectar or pollen. Two insects bore through the stems of Pale Indian Plantain: the caterpillars of the borer moth Papaipema maritima and the larvae of the lizard beetle Languria bicolor.