Plantago cordata Still Grows in Georgia

Dr. Roland M. Harper (1944), in an article in part about Plantago cordata, writes: “An interesting but problematical early reference, which may pertain to this species, is by William Bartram, in a manuscript report to Dr. Fothergill on his travels in Georgia and Florida in 1773 and 1774.” Francis Harper, who annotated this manuscript for publication (Bartram in Harper, 1943), identified the plantain as P. cordata, presumably on the basis of Bartram’s description. Roland Harper (1944), although allowing room for doubt as the specific identity of the plant, seems inclined to agree that it must have been P. cordata, but states: “. . . . I have found no other record of occurrence of P. cordata in Georgia, though I have been in every county in the state. But its distribution is sporadic at best, and some stations for it may have been destroyed by civilization and there is a possibility of finding it in Georgia, either at Bartram’s locality (‘apparently not far from the present site of Washington, Georgia’) or elsewhere.”