Some bumblebees have learned that it is easy to collect a lot of pollen from the normally wind-pollinated Plantain
Nature on our doorsteps: The not-so-ordinary Ribwort Plantain
Rosaleen Dwyer is the County Heritage Officer at South Dublin County Council – every week she gives us an insight into the natural heritage around us and the beautiful biodiversity of the plants and creatures.
A group of plants that is commonly found in lawns, grassy meadows, roadside verges, hedgerows, and waste ground is the Plantains.
Ribwort Plantain gets its name from the prominent veins that run the length of its narrow, pointed leaves.
These veins look a bit like long ribs, giving rise to the origin of the plant’s name which means ‘rib plant’.
The leaves can form a flat rosette at the base of the plant’s flowering stems.
As these leaves spread out, they nudge neighbouring plants back a little to allow more room for Plantain to grow.
Plantain’s flowerheads occur on the top of a slender leafless stem, and are noticeable as a short, dark brown or black dense spike of tiny flowers.
The flowerheads are most noticeable when their pollen-producing anthers emerge and surround the flowering spike like a cream-coloured tutu.
Plantain’s tiny flowers do not produce nectar, and so they normally do not attract pollinating insects.
This unusual ‘two-storey’ Plantain grew a new rosette of leaves with a flowering stem from the top of the original flowerhead
Instead, their cream-coloured anthers shake their pollen directly into the wind, to be carried away to nearby Plantains for pollination.
Some bumblebees, however, have learned that it is still worth their while investigating Plantains, but not to search for nectar.
These bees simply buzz through the plant’s pollen-laden anthers, allowing themselves to be completely showered in pollen.
The bee will then take time gathering it all into her pollen baskets before flying off with a full load, making Plantain easy pickings for very little effort.
Sometimes Plantains can show abnormal growth patterns.
This is known as ‘fasciation’, and the condition can be caused by a bacterial or fungal infection in the plant, or by damage to the plant’s growing tip.
This can cause the flowerhead to sprout additional flowerheads, a new rosette of leaves, and even another new flowering stem with a flowerhead.
In the urban environment the two Plantain species that are most commonly found are Ribwort Plantain and Greater Plantain.
Two other species, Sea Plantain and Buckshorn Plantain, are more usually found along the coast.
