disturbed areas. It is therefore common near roadsides where other plants cannot flourish; it grows tall if it can do so, but in frequently-mowed areas it adopts a flat growth habit instead. Historically, the plant has thrived in areas where ungulates graze and turn up the earth with their hooves. Reproduction The mode of reproduction can vary among populations of P. lanceolata. Reproduction occurs sexually, with the pollen being wind dispersed for the most part, though the plant is occasionally pollinated by bees. P. lanceolata cannot reproduce asexually in the way that many other species of Plantago can; instead, it is an obligate outcrosser. Enemies Insect predation Plantago lanceolata is host to many different species of the order Lepidoptera. Species such as Junonia coenia, Spilosoma congrua, and Melitaea cinxia lay their eggs on P. lanceolata plants so they can serve as a food source for the larvae when they hatch. The iridoid glycosides in the plant leaves accumulate in the caterpillars and make them unpalatable to predators. Infection by powdery mildew Podosphaera plantaginis is a powdery mildew fungus that infects P. lanceolata. All of the P. lanceolata populations are infected by several strains of this powdery mildew fungus. Once the populations are infected, the symptoms are minimal at first. Then, after a few weeks or months lesions start to appear covering the entire surface of the leaves and the stem, making it very noticeable. Another species that infects P. lanceolata is Golovinomyces sordidus. Both of these mildews are obligate biotrophs, meaning that they can only infect living tissue. They cover the surface of the leaves and extend hyphae into the cell matrix in order to extract nutrients. Resistance to powdery mildew After the populations are infected, they react in different ways. Some populations of P. lanceolata are more susceptible to different strains of powdery mildew. Also, some populations have multiple resistance phenotypes where on the other hand, others may only have one resistance phenotype. Overall, the populations that have the highest variety of resistance phenotypes will have the highest survival rates particularly when rates of infection are high. In popular culture Children use the plant in a game where the flower's head is "shot" off the end of stalk; it has alternately been called "1 o'clock gun", "rifle", among others names. To play the game, one would pluck a stalk and wrap a loop of the distal end of the