home

Melampyrum nemerosum - Wood Cow-wheat

Phylum: Magnoliophyta - Class: Equisetopsida - Order: Lamiales - Family: Orobanchaceae

Melampyrum nemerosum, Wood Cow-wheat, in Slovenia

Above: Wood Cow-wheat Melampyrum nemerosum growing on a wooded bank beside Lake Bled in Slovenia. (Wood Cow-wheat is particularly common in Slovenia's Triglav National Park.)

The Orobanchacea family of parasitic plants now contains many colourful and attractive wildflowers that were once placed, or some would say 'dumped', in a huge catch-all Figwort family Scrophulariaceae - the Cow-wheats amongst them. Field Cow-wheat (Melampyrum arvense) must surely count as one of our most beautiful of these wildflowers. There are other beautiful cow-wheat species, however, and Wood Cow-wheat with its deep purple upper leaves and bright yellow flowers surely deserves to be high on the list.

Distribution

Seldom seen in the UK, where it is now restricted to a few locations in Southern England, this lovely wildflower is more easily found on the mainland of Europe. Wood Cow-wheat is found from Sweden in the north right down to Slovenia, where eight different species of Cow-wheats grow.

Habitat and Blooming Times

Melampyrum nemerosum grows on woodland edges and on roadside verges, and it can usually be seen in full bloom throughout June and July.

Etymology

Melampyrum, the genus name, comes from the Greek words melas- meaning black, and -pyros meaning wheat. It is a reference to the fact that if seeds of a Melampyrum species are included with wheat or other grain that is ground up into bread-making flour then the resulting bread becomes discoloured (blackened). The specific epithet nemerosum means 'of the woods' - a reference to the kind of habitat in which this colourful cow-wheat is most often found.

Sue Parker's latest ebook is a revised and enlarged edition of Wild Orchids in The Burren. Full details here...

Buy it for just £5.95 on Amazon...


Wildflowers in the Algarve, an introductory guide, by Sue Parker

Sue Parker's latest ebook is a revised and enlarged second edition of the acclaimed Wildflowers in the Algarve - an introductory guide. Full details here...

Buy it for just £3.95 on Amazon...

Sue Parker's new ebook is a comprehensive and fully revised edition of her acclaimed field guide to the Wild Orchids of Wales. Full details here...

Buy it for just £5.95 on Amazon...

Sue Parker's 5-star acclaimed field guide to the Wild Orchids of the Algarve is now available as an ebook. Full details here...

Buy it for just £5.95 on Amazon...


Please Help Us: If you have found this information interesting and useful, please consider helping to keep First Nature online by making a small donation towards the web hosting and internet costs.

Any donations over and above the essential running costs will help support the conservation work of Plantlife, the Rivers Trust and charitable botanic gardens - as do author royalties and publisher proceeds from books by Pat and Sue.

© 1995 - 2024 First Nature: a not-for-profit volunteer-run resource

Please help to keep this free resource online...

Terms of use - Privacy policy - Disable cookies - Links policy