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Common Cow-Wheat
Melampyrum pratense
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Common Cow-Wheat is a small annual wildflower of heaths and forests across much of Europe and into western Siberia. It is a partial parasite that taps nearby plants for part of its food. Narrow leaves and pale to deep yellow, long-tubed, two-lipped flowers appear along the stem in well-spaced pairs.
Did you know?
- It steals some nutrients from the roots of neighbours such as pine and bilberry while still making its own food.
- After flowering the whole plant dries to a striking, almost black colour.
About the species
Identification
An annual 10–40 cm tall. Stems may branch and are dark green, often reddish in sun. Leaves grow in pairs, narrow and almost evenly narrow; lower ones with smooth edges. Near the flowers the leaf-like pieces are broader and can have teeth or long narrow lobes. Flowers sit in the angles beside these, in well-spaced pairs on one side of the stem. They are pale to deep yellow (sometimes white or reddish), 10–18 mm, with a hooded upper part and a three-lobed lower lip; the tube is long and straight and the mouth half closed. Fruit an oval pod with 2–4 egg-shaped seeds. Look-alike Small Cow-wheat has the flowers much more crowded. Flowers in Finland in mid to late summer (June–August).
Plant group
Herbaceous plants
Habitat
heath forest
Flowering
Jun–Aug
About the habitat
Grows in dry to fresh conifer and mixed woodlands, heaths, rocky outcrops, open bog hummocks, and sometimes in meadows and along roadsides. Common throughout the country.
Sources
Photo: Kristian Peters -- Fabelfroh 09:39, 3 October 2006 (UTC), CC BY-SA 3.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Melampyrum pratense.jpeg
Text: Pinkka: BIO-503 Suomen kasvisto ja kasvillisuus - Metsät: tuoreet kankaat, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.39633
Text: Wikipedia (Finnish), CC BY-SA 4.0 https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kangasmaitikka
