Melampyrum lineare
 
Cow-Wheat

Flower Side

Narrow Hills Provincial Park
13-August-2009

Note there are four calyx lobes, three visible in this photograph.  Note also the apex of the corolla lower lip is three-lobed.  There are four fertile stamens and no sterile stamens.  The anthers are enclosed in the galea.

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]