Buckshorn Plantain

Image Gallery Buckshorn plantain, ready for harvesting. ROB CARDILLO

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You’ve probably never heard of buckshorn plantain (pronounced bucks-horn), but this nutritious salad green has been grown in the United States since at least Colonial times. It was used then as a medicinal plant, thought to relieve fevers and protect against a host of other maladies. It was also popular in fancy jellies (see recipe below).

Today, buckshorn plantain (Plantago coronopus) is often known as “minutina” or “herba stella,” and is used mostly in salads or as a garnish. The succulent, crunchy leaves are best when harvested young, and taste a little like parsley, spinach or kale, but sweeter and nuttier. The flavor is best before the plant begins to flower. The flowers draw up the essential oils, i.e. flavor, from the leaves. But the flowers themselves also are great in salads.

Ten years ago, when I first wrote about buckshorn plantain in my book Heirloom Vegetable Gardening, England and France were just about the only places you could find seeds. Even there, seeds were limited to herb specialists. Today this attractive potherb is much easier to find, even showing up on some restaurant menus.

The plant’s common name is derived from the shape of its leaves: narrow, spiky and antlerlike. Buckshorn plantain grows wild along the pebbly coastline of Europe and in widely scattered areas of the Mediterranean. It thrives in cool, rainy weather, and because of its seaside origin, this plantain doesn’t mind saline soil. This natural adaptation allows it to grow where many other plants won’t. It will withstand a great deal of abuse — almost anything except extremely long, frigid winters. In its natural mild-winter habitat the plant is biennial, but in areas of the United States where temperatures can dip below zero, it should be treated as an annual.

In short season areas, buckshorn plantain can be overwintered in unheated greenhouses, and some growers have had success growing it in tunnels. I start my plants in a greenhouse, then transfer them out of doors in early April after the threat of hard frost passes. You also can sow seeds directly in the garden in early spring. Plantain can survive light frosts without damage. Give the plants plenty of room — about 8 inches around each — and keep them watered.

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