Does anyone know what this plant is?

[lisaanne]

This is growing everywhere around my house. Does anyone know what it is and if it is edible? I live in Mississippi in the U.S. Thank you for any help.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lisaanne1858/4578281491/

[Nick69]

You'll need to take a closer picture for ID . For me anyway

[Hedgehogpie]

It looks like greater plantain (platago major)* to me,although it really would be good to have a much closer shot if one of them in order to be sure.

Interestingly, if it is greater plantain, then it's a plant that seems to have followed the colonists to america as it's a naturalized introduction. The native population are supposed to have named it 'white man's footprint' because wherever they went, it grew. It has a history of both culinary and medicinal uses although I can tell you from experience that the leaves are both tough and bitter so repeated blanching would be needed if you wanted to make it palateable, plus it's got stringy fibers in the leaves.

*http://www.pfaf.org/database/plants.php?Plantago+major

[The Riff-Raff Element]

Looks like some kind of something from the genus plantago. Some plants of that genus have been used as herbal remedies and they are eaten by grazing / browsing animals, but whether they'd be good as a vegetable I couldn't say.

I'd get a positive ID from someone more local before trying to eat them

[The Riff-Raff Element]

Snap!

[lisaanne]

You'll need to take a closer picture for ID . For me anyway

I have taken a closer picture:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lisaanne1858/?saved=1

[Hedgehogpie]

I'm still voting for greater plantain. As Riff suggests, see if anyone local knows or has a name for them. Meantime, look up plantago major images in a good plant identification guide or online (just beware of online searches tho' not everything posted is id'd correctly). Also watch out or emerging flower/seed heads which will help you with your id.

Steve Brill's info should be of interest:

http://www.wildmanstevebrill.com/Plants ... ntain.html

[lisaanne]

Thanks to all for your help and information. I did look up images of greater plantain and it does look like it. I believe I have some uses for it. Thanks again!

[Taraven]

I also think it looks like plantain and I have an ornamental one with reddish leaves growing in my garden.
Many years ago, when people I knew kept aviary canaries and finches, they used to tie the long, ripened 'rat tails' (seed heads) into bunches and feed them to the birds.
As children we called them 'rats-tails'

The sparrows eat the seeds from my ornamental plantain so birds must like the seeds.

Taraven