common cow-wheat
melampyrum pratense latin

Coppiced woodland (especially in clearings) with Common Cow-wheat on acid soils.

Common cow-wheat, the foodplant of the caterpillar of the heath fritillary is already present in some parts of the wood.

Melampyrum pratense or Common Cow-wheat is a plant species of the genus Melampyrum.

Recorded also are Common Cow-wheat, Lousewort, Bitter-vetch and Tormentil.

Melampyrum pratense (Common Cow-wheat).

Uncommon species are Meadow Saffron, Herb-Paris, Common Cow-wheat, Bitter-vetch and Violet Helleborine.

There occurs: daphne mezereum, red elderberry, hazel, platanthera bifolia, sweet woodruff, herb paris, cranberry, wood sorrel, chickweed wintergreen, Common Cow-wheat and lily of the valley.

Typical woodland species such as Bluebell, Wood Anemone and Yellow Archangel flower, together with Heather, Bilberry and Common Cow-wheat.

The ground flora include Common Cow-wheat, Great Woodrush, Wavy Hair-grass, Foxglove and Slender St John's Wort.

Species of plants include Common Cow-wheat, Bitter Vetch, Black Spleenwort, Harebell, Nettle-leaved Bellflower, Bluebell and Viper's Bugloss.

When conditions are open, after the coppice is cut, much of the ground is colonised by Common Cow-wheat, which is the food plant of the caterpillar of the rare Heath Fritillary butterfly.

The larvae feed on Plantago lanceolata, Melampyrum pratense and Yellow rattle.

They also form an important ecological partnership with plants such as violet and cow-wheat (Melampyrum pratense) for various Boloria Fritillary species.