petriei Cheeseman[2] Plantago lanigera is a species of flowering plant in the family Plantaginaceae that is endemic to New Zealand.

[1][4][5] The lectotype was collected by James Hector and John Buchanan from Otago, South Island, New Zealand and designated by Heidi Meudt.

[7][5] Compared to P. unibracteata and P. triandra, P. lanigera and P. novae-zelandiae (and other mainland New Zealand species) have leaves that are widest at or above the middle, and usually longer scapes, more flowers per spike, and fewer seeds per capsule.

[5] However, for plants lacking flowers or fruit, and with leaves that are widest near the middle, it can be difficult to determine whether a specimen is P. lanigera or P. unibracteata.

[5] Plantago lanigera plants are small rosettes with a primary root up to 9 mm thick, with up to 21 usually narrowly angular-ovate or angular-ovate leaves, and with visible, short (<15 mm long), rust-coloured leaf axillary hairs in the basal rosette.

Each capsule has 4–13 uniform rust or brown seeds 0.6–1.5 mm long, ellipsoid, rhomboid or angular-ovoid.

[5] It grows in herbfields, grasslands and shrublands, in bogs, on the edges of streams and tarns, on rocks or ridges, in damp or wet areas, from 580 to 1820 m above sea level.

[13] Individuals of P. lanigera showed high intraspecific variation in another study using only nuclear ribosomal DNA (internal transcribed spacer region).