No, it's not the kind of plantain you can eat. Moving on...
 
I frickin love this little plant. Woolly plantain is a native annual that rocks at growing in the worst imaginable conditions. If you have a 'hell strip' in front of your house, this might be the plant to fill it with life. It likes cozy places such as: along heavily used trails, atop windswept ridges, and next to railroad tracks. 
 
On droughty hillsides woolly plantain might be a few inches tall, but give it some moisture and nice-ish soil and it will grow much taller and more lush. Either way, you'll enjoy fuzzy strappy little grey-green leaves and tall narrow flowering bracts. The papery white flowers themselves aren't much to write home about, but the bract remains steadfastly upright well after the plant has died for the season, providing plenty of visual interest. 
 
Like all our annuals, this guy reseeds very well on bare weed-free ground. As a bonus, the bracts are easy to collect, should you wish to spread them further. I recommend getting a few going, then collecting seeds to spread into the droughtiest areas of your yard. 
 
Plant with hairy golden aster and cutleaf daisy for a trio of tough (maybe our toughest?) drought-resitant plants.