Buckhorn plantain

Buckhorn plantain is a perennial broadleaf weed that forms a basal rosette of long, narrow, lance-shaped leaves about an inch across, each marked by three to five prominent, nearly parallel veins and often bearing short hairs. From the rosette rise erect, leafless, ridged flower stalks four to twelve inches long, each topped by a short, compact cylindrical spike of small flowers that produces a ring of pale stamens as it blooms. It grows from a slender, fibrous root system with a short crown. The narrow, strap-like, ribbed leaves clearly distinguish it from broadleaf plantain, which has broad, oval leaves.

Buckhorn plantain breaks up a uniform lawn with rosettes of coarse, strap-like leaves and with the tall, wiry, spike-tipped seed stalks that protrude well above the mowed canopy and look ragged between mowings. The ground-hugging rosettes shade and crowd the grass directly around them, thinning the stand in those spots, and where the plant occupies droughty or compacted areas it competes with already-stressed turf and leaves voids when the crowns are removed.

Buckhorn plantain is a perennial that persists from a fibrous-rooted crown and reproduces by seed and, to a degree, by shoots arising from the roots. Its main growth period runs from about June through September, during which it sends up its characteristic spike-tipped stalks and sets seed. Established crowns regrow year after year, and the seed it produces supports reinfestation, making it a persistent component of older, thin, or low-input turf.

Buckhorn plantain tolerates dry, infertile, and compacted soils and establishes most readily in thin, weak, or poorly maintained turf across a wide geographic range. It exploits the openings created by drought stress, low fertility, and worn or compacted areas where desirable grass is not competitive. Because it is sensitive to common growth-regulator herbicides, it is now far less abundant in well-managed, regularly treated turf than it once was, persisting mainly in untreated or neglected lawns.