Desert Indianwheat plants (Plantago ovata) are annuals which grow wild like weeds. They are also cultivated in Spain, France, and India. The leaves are used much like spinach, either raw or steamed. The mucilaginous seeds are also used to thicken ice cream and chocolate or sprouted as part of a salad. The plants are low growing, 12 to 18 inches (30-45 cm.) tall, herbaceous and have a white flower spike. A profitable bit of Pysllium plant information for the pharmaceutical industry is that each plant can produce up to 15,000 seeds. Since these are the cash cow of the plant, this is good news, as is the fact that the plant is easy to grow.
