Plantago major

Plants for which we've forgotten the uses . . . . 

Plantain - Plantago major

In a report from Virginia, in 1687, it stated that the Indians called the plant Englishman’s Foot, due to the plant’s habit of growing wherever the White Man created a settlement, giving the plant two of its common names. Longfellow noted in his “Hiawatha” that wherever the English have taken possession of the soil, the Plantain springs up. It is believed to be one of the first plants to reach North America after European colonisation.

There is just so much plantain growing in the grass of my garden, and my gardening friend Terry thinks I'm completely mad not to try and eradicate it. He's an old school gardener and is quite ruthless in his destruction of anything that he considers a weed.

Anyhow, these plants are currently my inspiration and keep me busily making books, of which this is a result. It seems appropriate somehow, to show plantain in a map, after all it's created its own map while colonising the globe.