1727 Plantago media L.

This widespread species originates mast probably from C., S. and E. Europe and W. Asia. It is considered to have spread within and beyond that area with grass-seeds, for instance to Fennoscandia and to N. America and New Zealand. The range of subsp. urvilleana (Rapin) Hult., a southern counterpart, is marked tentatively (cf. Fl. Eur. 4/1976, p. 41). The species has today an almost circumpolar distribution (Hultén, Circumpol. Il, p. 286 and map 277). Cf. also Meusel et al. 1978, map p. 420.