[header] How to harvest plantain leaves [title] Learn how to identify plantains. [step] Plantains most often resemble small shrubs growing close to the ground. Their leaves are a bright green color, sometimes with hints of red or purple around the stems. 
They can either be broad or narrow, but almost always taper in a spade-like shape and feature multiple parallel veins lined up across the leaf. [substeps] Mature plantains produce small flowers that grow on thin, fuzzy stalks.