Hi, I was gone for a few weeks but am back.... Here is a picture that I took in Southern Alberta and one that was taken here in Kelowna. They seem to be the same plant. Any ideas?
I have looked for the name of this plant for at least 15 years, which probably tells you how great of a amateur botanist I really am. :) I have tried to identify most of the plants in an area I used to frequent with my dog of which this one was very much in evidence, small as it is (3-6", 6-14cm). But today I finally found it. It is a plantain of all things. Plantago patagonica or Wooly Plantain. See the University of Wisconsin site for comparison. The key that I used to narrow it down to the Plantaganaceae is a petal key, located at http://www.kenbowles.net/SDWildflowers/WflwrKey/TopLevelKey.htm. Needless to say it works or at least it worked in this instance. Harry
Harry, I spent a few hours on this one a couple months ago, so I'm glad you were able to resolve it and put my mind at ease.
Hi Daniel You are probably talking weeks in actual time over the years I have spent on this plant. I would collect a specimen every so often and try to identify it. Finally it became a once a year project to look for it. Never noticed the flowers until Ikliewer posted his photos with the flower spike. Also the petal key link above works pretty well for most families, Especially if the petals are distinctive such as with the Cleome id in the plant id forum. But the Asteraceae with all its similarly petalled plants is a bit problematic. Also the disclaimer on that page about similarly petalled plants with different numbers of flower parts (stamens etc) is true and does make things a little easier to jump to wrong conclusions. But it is a good place to start if like me, sometimes you have no idea as to the genus a plant belongs to. Don't know how well it would apply as a universal key given the extreme differences within a genus, let alone within a family. Harry
