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Melampyrum pratense
Also called Common Cowwheat
Melampyrum pratense, the common cow-wheat, is a plant species in the family Orobanchaceae.
The seed of the plant has an elaiosome, which is attractive to wood ants (Formica spp.). The ants disperse the seeds of the plant when they take them back to their nests to feed their young. The plant is an ancient woodland indicator, as the ants rarely carry the seeds more than a few yards, seldom crossing a field to go to a new woodland.
Field cow-wheat · Crested Cow-wheat · Narrowleaf cowwheat · Ivan Da Maria · Small Cow Wheat · Cow Wheat
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Melampyrum pratense by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts are shared under the same licence.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
