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RE: Everyday Herbalism: The Plantain
I enjoy eating plantain leaves! The common name I've always used for the P. lanceolata is the narrow-leaf plantain, so it's nice to hear another common name. They both have several! I like the mushroom flavor of the raw narrowleaf plantain. It gets lost in the cooking, I think, but the cooked greens flavor is nice, too. It's tiny in the winter and early spring, but I consider it a staple once spring has really started in my area. In the shade, the leaves can get pretty big, too. Enjoy your plantain -- but I hope you don't need it for medical needs very often!
Thanks for another name to call it! I realize sometimes I call certain plants by a name, and sometimes nobody knows what I am talking about.
I like them both as a trail-side nibble, although my wife and kids find them a bit too stringy without cooking down a bit.
I have noticed at the edge of wooded areas that the leaves get absolutely massive. At least as big as my hand. I've always wanted to try and use those as a wrapper, like grape leaves, but just haven't done it yet.
We get a decent number of bee- stings to try it out on, but it seems to do OK for mosquito bites as well.
When a plant has so many common names, that suggests to me that it has a lot of uses. People cared enough about that plant to give it a name -- in a lot of places, each with their own name.
That's an interesting idea to use them as wrappers! With leaves the size of your hand, that's sounds possible, indeed!