Plantago lagocephala Bunge, Mem. Say. Etrang, Petersb. 7: 445. 1851. Lace and Hemsl. in Jour. Linn. Soc. Bot. Lond. 28: 319. 1891; Blatter, Hallberg and McCann in Jour. Ind. Bot. Soc. 1: 266 1920; Patzak and Rech. f. in Rech. f., Fl. Iran. 15, 18. 1965.
Vern.: Baluch.: Danishk; Brohi : Piddari.
Small annual herbs. Leaves numerous in rosettes, erect, stiff, papery, 3-4 cm long, up to 3 mm broad, narrow-lanceolate to oblanceolate, upper part drawn towards the obtuse stiff apices, attenuated below, slightly dilated at the base, covered densely on the lower parts, sparsely towards the apices with long thin, greyish to yellow hairs. Scapes 2-4, thin erect to slightly arcuate, villose. Spikes dense, ovoid, c 8 mm long in flower, later in fruits up to 15 mm long, covered densely with hairs. Bracts 3 mm long, broad-ovate bearing greyish to yellowish hairs, keels narrow, strong, margins scarious. Sepals 3 mm long, anterior ones lanceolate-ovate, lateral lamina equalling or slightly broader than the thick keels, posterior usually much unequally broad, one lateral sepal semi-ovate, the other without scarious margins and not bearing hairs, usually as broad as the posterior sepal. Corolla tube cylindrical, lobes small, 1 mm long, densely hairy, the middle groove marked brown. Seeds large, 2.5-3 mm long, yellowish-brown, elliptic to narrow ovate-elliptic.
Type: “Turcomania, Jan Darja” 4 Mai, 1842 Lehmann 1089 (L-not seen).
Distribution: Turkestan and Pakistan.
Various preparations of the plant are used against gripes, constipation, “white urine” and boils.
