Common cow-wheat

I hadn't realised what an attractive little flower common cow-wheat Melampyrum pratense is until I took these pictures, .... especially ........

.... from this angle, with those frilly edges at the entrance to the tubular corolla.

These plants were flowering in woodland on the north bank of the river Tees at Barnard Castle earlier this week. Cow-wheat is partially parasitic in the roots of a variety of woodland plants, although it always seems to be most abundant when its growing on bilberry, as it was here.

All the spring flowers are just a distant memory and there are few species in bloom in woodland but common cow-wheat is an exception and is at its best right now. This bumblebee was taking full advantage, collecting pollen and nectar.

Vegetable Vampires 1: Common Cow-wheat

Backstone Bank wood near Wolsingham in Weardale has an interesting ground flora - one factor that qualifies it for SSSI status - and it includes this attractive little plant that blooms amongst the bilberry around the western edge of the wood. This is common cow-wheat Melampyrum pratense and although it looks harmless enough it's a partial parasite (hemiparasite) on the roots of bilberry. Its green leaves carry out photosynthesis and produce sugars but its roots invade those of the bilberry, siphoning off water and mineral nutrients.

Specialist hemiparasites like this thrive in soils with low fertility where there is intense competition for essential but scarce minerals, like nitrogen and phosphorus, because they are the botanical equivalent of vampires, tapping into the internal plumbing system of their host to supplement their own nutrition.

This is common cow-wheat but for pictures of its much rarer cousin small cow-wheat Melampyrum sylvaticum take a look at Mark's Beating the Bounds blog.

Some plants (holoparasites) have taken parasitism one step further, losing their chlorophyll and becoming totally dependent on their host for all their nutritional requirements - you can find a common example here and an extremely rare and beautiful example here.