Common Cow-wheat - Melampyrum pratense

Leaves in pairs, linear to oval untoothed and generally unstalked. Flowers yellow to whitish, 10 to 18 mm long, the upper lip often tinged with red or purple in lax, one sided spikes, throat of the corolla usually closed. 

The leaves can look very similar to Greater Stitchwort, but are larger and firmer in texture

Photos showing the flowering plant in its habitat (RPR)

Woods, scrub, heaths and upland moorlands on well-drained, nutrient-poor acidic soils.

In flower June to October. 

An annual hemiparasite. The large seeds are distributed by ants.

Local and declining in Britain, probably due to habitat loss and the cessation of traditional woodland management.

Rare in Leicestershire and Rutland where it is now confined to old woodlands in Charnwood Forest, but is decreasing.

In the Flora of Leicestershire (Primavesi and Evans 1988) it was found in 7 of the 617 tetrads.

It is listed on the current VC55 Rare Plant Register (Hall and Woodward 2022) as Locally Rare.