:smack: I should have mentioned that. Same name, different plants.
Let this be a lesson to all would-be herbalists out there: this is why we must learn our Latin binomials! 
Or in other words, we are largely talking about regression to the mean.
It’s good for getting rid of zits. Thayer’s makes a non-alcohol witch hazel preparation, since alcohol isn’t all that good for your skin, although witch hazel is pretty good for your skin.
The word wych referring to pliable branches is etymologically related to the word weak.
plantain (1) “banana,” 1555, from Sp. plátano, plántano, probably from Carib platana “banana” (Arawak pratane), and altered by assoc. with Sp. plátano “plane tree,” from M.L. plantanus “plane tree,” itself altered (by association with L. planta “plant”) from L. platanus (see plane (4)). So called from the shape of its leaves. There is no similarity or relation between this plant and plantain
(2). plantain (2) Look up plantain at Dictionary.com
“weed of the genus Plantago,” c.1265, from Anglo-Fr. plaunteyne, O.Fr. plantain, from L. plantaginem (nom. plantago), the common weed, from planta “sole of the foot,” so called from its flat leaves.
For the cooking banana, this confusion probably results from taking the word for the banana from the French and confusing their pronunciation with that for the weedy annual called “Plantain” already in English.
As to the Native Americans calling plantains “White Man’s footsteps”, apparently these Natives didn’t live in California, because we have a few native species.