Science Technician Patricia has created an interpretative guide for the plants along the Oceanside Trail. This guide will help volunteers identify the native plants for visitors as they hike the trail.
You can find the new interpretative plant guide as part of the ebinder in the Terrestrial Plants section.
Enjoy and thank you Patricia!
CNM VIP Voice 
Thank you for the Oceanside Trail plant guide. Nice photos and text. I do, however, think you have included a photo for Plantago erecta that is a different species of Plantago. The spike for the Plantago in the first is too long. in the plant description in the Jepson eflora, it says the spike is 0.5-3 cm, and head-like to short-cylindric.
Please let me know if you have any questions regarding this note.
Larry Sward, CNM VIP
Hi Larry,
Thank you so much for your comment. Great observation. I actually have had several conversations about P. erecta at the park with Dr. Jon Rebman from the NAT. There is great variation in the size of the spikes and size of the plants in the park (see link to observation below). He is of the mind that it would be worth investigating at some point, but currently nobody is revising the genus. He’d like to get to it in the future though. For now, he wants to lump it all in P. erecta since it is the best match for both variants. The Oceanside Trail has both smaller and larger plants.
dot-seed plantain (Plantago erecta) from Cabrillo National Monument, San Diego, CA, US on March 15, 2023 at 01:52 PM by Patricia Simpson · iNaturalist
We do have another native species of plantain, the Desert Plantain. I’ve only found it on the Bayside Trail.
Variety Plantago ovata insularis from Point Loma, San Diego, CA, USA on February 21, 2022 at 12:32 PM by Patricia Simpson · iNaturalist
Patricia Simpson – Science Technician – CNM