1725 Plantago major L.

This polymorphic species is widely distributed. Many more or less well-defined taxa are distinguished. Hultén, regarding this plant as circumpolar (Circumpol. Il, p. 392), proposes "that the worldwide complex consists of two major series, the American-East Asiatic P. asiatica series and the European, West and Central Asiatic P. major series, both of which can be expected to be composed of a northern and a southern component, as are other similar complexes'.' Thus the complex has a circumpolar distribution (op. cit., p. 252, 392 and map 244). It is well known that P. major has followed the white man, i. e. the European colonizers of foreign continents. Thus the European taxon (or ecotype) has been introduced into, for instance, N. America where it occurs parallel to indigenous taxa (cf. Fernald, Manual 1950, p. 1315). Like P. lanceolata (no. 1724) P. major is considered to have been introduced into S. Fennoscandia by farmers during the Early Neolithic period. However, same indigenous taxa probably existed then and still exist in particular, often saline biotopes, e. g. subsp. winteri (Wirtgen.) W. Ludw. and subsp. intermedia (DC.) Arcang. (Fl. Eur. 4/1976, p. 39). Cf. world map in Meusel et al. 1978, p. 421.