[+] Corolla glabrous; leaves strongly ribbed; perennial.
[++] Ribs of the broad leaves rising from the midrib.
1. P. cordàta, Lam. Tall, glabrous; leaves heart-shaped or round-ovate (3–8´ long), long-petioled; spike at length loosely flowered; bracts round-ovate, fleshy; capsule 2–4-seeded.—Along streams, N. Y. to Minn., and southward.
[++][++] Ribs of the leaf free to the contracted base.
2. P. màjor, L. (Common Plantain.) Smooth or rather hairy, rarely roughish; leaves ovate, oblong, oval, or slightly heart-shaped, often toothed, abruptly narrowed into a channelled petiole; spike dense, obtuse; sepals round-ovate or obovate; capsule ovoid, circumscissile near the middle, 8–18-seeded; seeds angled, reticulated.—Waysides and near dwellings everywhere. Doubtless introduced from Eu., but native from L. Superior and N. Minn., northward.
3. P. Rugélii, Decaisne. Leaves as in the last, but paler and thinner; spikes long and thin, attenuate at the apex; sepals oblong, acutely carinate; capsules cylindraceous-oblong, circumscissile much below the middle, 4–9-seeded; seeds oval-oblong, not reticulated. (P. Kamtschatica, Gray, Man., not Cham.)—Vt. to Minn., south to Ga. and Tex.
4. P. eriòpoda, Torr. Usually a mass of yellowish wool at the base; leaves thickish, oblanceolate to obovate, with short stout petioles; spike dense or loose; sepals and bract more or less scarious but not carinate; capsule ovoid, never over 4-seeded.—Moist and saline soil; Red River valley, Minn., and westward; also on the Lower St. Lawrence.
P. lanceolàta, L. (Ribgrass. Ripplegrass. English Plantain.) Mostly hairy; scape grooved-angled, at length much longer than the lanceolate or lance-oblong leaves, slender (9´–2° high); spike dense, at first capitate, in age cylindrical; bract and sepals scarious, brownish; seeds 2, hollowed on the face.—Very common. (Nat. from Eu.)
[+][+] Corolla-tube externally pubescent; leaves linear or filiform, fleshy, indistinctly ribbed; seeds 2–4; maritime, often woolly at base.
5. P. decípiens, Barneoud. Annual, or sometimes biennial with a stout rootstock, smooth, or the scape pubescent; leaves flat or flattish and channelled, erect, nearly as long as the scape (5–12´), acuminate; spike slender, rather loose. (P. maritima, var. juncoides, Gray, Man.)—Salt marshes, Atlantic coast, from Labrador to N. J. The characters distinguishing biennial specimens of this from the next are obscure.