General: Desert Indianwheat (Plantago ovata) is a small annual forb that has 2-4 (8) inch long, linear leaves that grow from the base. The inflorescence is a short stem with a cylindrical or spherical mass of bracts harboring tiny whitish, 4-part flowers. Leaves and flowering stalks covered with long hairs, with hairs going in all directions.

Desert Indianwheat is a common, often abundant component of vegetation communities in dry, well-drained sandy and gravelly soils on desert flats and bajadas into the lower mountains in the Lower Sonoran (Creosote-Bursage Flats) and Upper Sonoran (Mojave Desert Scrub) life zones. Around Las Vegas, look for Desert Indianwheat everywhere in desert habitat, but look closely.

A similar species, Woolly Plantain, looks similar to Desert Indianwheat, but Woolly Plantain has ascending hairs on the peduncle and bracts that stick out from below each flower.

Family: Plantain (Plantaginaceae)

Plant Form: Annual. Small tuft of leaves with short, upright flowering stalks

Height: To about 6 inches.

Stems: None (excluding flowering stalks)

Leaves: Nearly linear to slightly oblong, entire, with long hairs

Flowers: Inflorescence: peduncle to about 8 inches with woolly hairs (hairs not straight and project in all directions. Flower spike to about 1.5 inches, cylindric. Flower: Petals 4, small, corolla lobes spreading, to about 3 mm, bract not exserted.

Seeds: Cylindrical with rounded ends, relatively large (2 mm).

Habitat: Dirt and rocky soils, sometimes in sandy soils.

Elevation: Below about 3,000 ft.

Distribution: Desert southwest from California to Texas

Comment: For Desert Tortoises, this is like candy -- they love it. For such a small plant, it produces many relatively large seeds and provides an important food source for desert tortoise, desert iguana, and other vegetarian creatures.