If you live in an area with compacted soil, you've probably encountered a weed with oval leaves and white flower spikes growing in a rosette form. Referred to as a Broadleaf or Common Plantain, this edible herb is actually quite medicinal.
The humble plant often grows in compacted ground on paths and roads so it’s not so easy to find a forgeable specimen. For this reason, if you intend to use it, you might want to cultivate your own on an area with less traffic or in a pot with hard-pressed soil.
Why would you want to cultivate it? It can be used topically to reduce inflammation and heal small scrapes and bug bites. Internally, you can consume it to help regulate digestion. It can be used to reduce cholesterol and has high levels of vitamin C. A small warning though, it can interfere with the absorption of lithium, so you must be weary if you need those medicines.
For topical treatment, you can pluck and wash the leaves before grinding them into a poultice and applying directly. Or you can infuse them into a salve or cream after you wash them. I’m currently working on my own recipe for a multipurpose skin salve featuring this plant. But more on that later.
To consume, you can pluck the leaves and eat them directly after washing. You might even consider pairing it with spinach and arugula for a salad.
How would you grow it? This is a plant grows by seeds alone. They start to flower right in the rainy season. That’s the perfect window to pluck the flowers and scatter them in a full sun area with compact soil. Personally, I’ll be planting mine around the path to my edible forest in the back of our property. I might even dig up a few of the ones that aren’t quite out of the road zone and move them there. This is to give the seeds a better shot of rooting. Plantains grow in clusters so transplanting buddies together is an essential.
Hopefully this herb will now become your go to bug bite cure. And at the very least, now you know plantain is so much more than just a persistent ground cover.
