Melampyrum arvense
Field Cow- wheat ( Melampyrum arvense)
The Field Cow- wheat ( Melampyrum arvense) is a form- rich plant species in the genus cow-wheat ( Melampyrum ) in the family of broomrape family ( Orobanchaceae ). This species is slightly toxic.
Features
The Field Cow- wheat is a wintering green, annual plant, so a Therophyt which reaches stature heights of 10 to 30 centimeters. It is a semi- parasite on cereals and other grasses - types, so you can find the Field Cow- wheat mainly due to ( calcareous ) arable land, hence the German trivial name. The stem is branched upright and weak. The leaves are linear to lanceolate; the lower ones are entire, the upper on the base perforated.
The flowers are arranged in a cone or roller- union, aged men inflorescence. The bracts are pale to red lilac. The bracts are ei - lanceolate, purple or rarely colored yellow green and have the lower part grannenförmige teeth. The hermaphrodite flowers are zygomorphic. The fluffy hairy calyx is nearly as long as the corolla tube. The crown is 2 to 2.5 inches long, the tube is yellowish to whitish, the lips are reddish and the upper lip is helmet-shaped bent. The upturned at the edge of the lower lip is almost on the upper lip; the Kronschlund thereby almost closed. The flowering period extends from May to August. There is insect pollination or self-pollination.
The oval capsule fruits narrows at both ends. The seeds are spread by ants ( myrmecochory ).
The chromosome number is n = 9
Occurrence
The Field Cow- wheat is found in almost all of Europe, in the northern reaches its range to southern Sweden. In Germany, this species is distributed only in the south, the north and south of the Danube and the Alps it is rare.
They settled mainly Staudensäume warm dry locations and fields and short-lived weeds corridors, secondary deposits are found in arid and semi- arid grassland, as well as on halbruderalen couch grass dry warm locations.