Annual herb 10 cm - 0.6 m tall Stem: elongate, hairy, slightly sticky. Leaves: opposite, numerous, 2 - 8 cm long, 1 - 3 mm wide, linear with a pointed tip, more or less parallel-veined, and hairy. Inflorescence: a long-stalked, dense spike of many flowers, head-like, 0.5 - 1.5 cm long, about 1 cm wide, hairy, subtended by hairy bracts. Stalk of each inflorescence axillary and 2 - 8 cm long. Flowers: stalkless or nearly stalkless, whitish, subtended by hairy bracts. Stamens four, exserted, alternate with corolla lobes. Style one. Sepals: four, green, elliptic to reverse egg-shaped with a blunt apex. Fruit: a dehiscent capsule (circumscissile). Seeds one or two, shiny brown, 2 - 3 mm long. Corolla: four-lobed, whitish, scarious (dry, thin, membranous). Lobes becoming reflexed, 1.5 - 2 mm long.
Similar species: This is the only Plantago in the Chicago Region with stem leaves. The leaves of the others are all basal.
Flowering: late July to early October
Habitat and ecology: Introduced from Eurasia. Occurs in waste ground and along railroads.
Occurence in the Chicago region: non-native
Etymology: Plantago comes from the Latin word planta, meaning footprint. Arenaria means "growing in sandy areas."