Plantago depressa, Herbs, annual, winter annual, or perennial. Taproot long, ± fleshy or becoming woody when old. Leaves basal, sparsely or densely white pubescent; petiole 2-7 cm; leaf blade elliptic, elliptic-lanceolate, obovate-elliptic, or ovate-lanceolate, 3-15 × 1-5.5 cm, papery, veins 5 or 7, base cuneate and decurrent onto petiole, margin repand-crenate, irregularly serrate, dentate, or entire, apex acute to obtuse.
The five known phenylethanoid glycosides, cistanoside F, β-hydroxyacteoside, campenoside I, acteoside and orobanchoside, and a new phenylethanoid gly.
Meadows, wet mountain slopes, riverbanks, wet places, fields, roadsides; near sea level to 4500 m. Anhui, Gansu, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Henan, Hubei, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Jilin, Liaoning, E Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shandong, Shanxi, Sichuan, Xinjiang, Xizang, Yunnan [Afghanistan, Bhutan, India, Kashmir, Kazakhstan, Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Pakistan, E Russia].