Note that botanists now place many genera in this family that in our source’s classification were placed in the family Scrophulariaceae. See that family for the snapdragons, pentstemons, and so on.
Common Plantain (Plantago major).
The big shiny round leaves of Plantain infest many a
lawn, sometimes crowding out the grass. They are
edible in stews, however, which suggests a method of
control: namely, to give up attempts at control and
declare your Plantain-infested lawn a vegetable
garden. The tiny flowers grow on a long spike shaped
like a cat’s tail, with a broad ring of flowers
proceeding up the spike as the bloom progresses.
Plantago rugelii
Common Plantain (Plantago lanceolata). These ubiquitous weeds are found in every lawn, in sidewalk cracks, along the edge of the street, and anywhere else they can gain a foothold. They are actually relatives (according to modern genetic studies) of our garden snapdragons, to which, however, they bear little superficial resemblance. The unmistakable flower heads look like some imaginative artist’s conception of plant life on another planet.