Melampyrum lineare
 
Cow-Wheat

Fruit, Side B

Narrow Hills Provincial Park
13-August-2009

The key to the genera in Budd's Flora requires the following contradictory or incorrect answers for Melampyrum.  My comments are in red. 

flowers solitary in the upper leaf axils; NOT [flowers in terminal panicle-like cyme] Contradicts next answer.  Flowers are either solitary in upper leaf axils or in a terminal, leafy spike.

flowers NOT solitary Contradicts previous answer.  Flowers are either solitary in upper leaf axils or in a terminal, leafy spike.

flowers blue Flowers are whitish to purplish with a yellowish lower lip.

 

Melampyrum: The remaining answers to key questions from Budd's Flora, and those from Flora of Alberta, that lead to this genus are as follows.

stems leafy; NOT [leaves in a basal rosette, stem leafless]

leaves opposite; NOT [leaves alternate, whorled, or basal]

leaves with stalks; NOT [upper leaves stalkless]

leaves 10-40 mm long; NOT [leaves 2-10 mm long]

leaves linear to lanceolate; NOT [leaves ovate]

leaves simple, neither lobed nor cleft; NOT [leaves lobed or cleft]

leaves more or less entire, barely toothed; NOT [leaves sharply and coarsely toothed]

floral leaves or bracts usually green; NOT [floral leaves or bracts brightly colored, usually red or yellow, or shades of these colors]

flowers less than 10 mm long; NOT [flowers large and showy, 10-35 mm long]

calyx much shorter than 1 cm long in flower

calyx 4-lobed; NOT [calyx 5-lobed]

calyx not membranous and not much inflated in fruit; NOT [calyx becoming enlarged, membranous, veiny, and inflated in fruit]

corolla NOT spurred at the base

four anther-bearing stamens and no sterile stamens

corolla white to yellow; NOT [corolla pinkish purple]

 

Scrophulariaceae: Answers to key questions in Budd's Flora  leading to this family. 

herbs; NOT [shrubs or trees]

plants green or with some chlorophyll; NOT [plants parasitic or saprophytic, without chlorophyll]

plants NOT aquatic

leaves NOT bearing bladders

stems NOT square

flowers with two floral rings, but with the petals wholly or partly united forming a tube or bell

flowers irregular

flowers brightly colored; NOT [flowers inconspicuous]

corolla irregular; NOT [corolla regular]

ovary superior; NOT [ovary inferior]

fruit a many-seeded capsule; NOT [fruit with 4 nutlets]