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Melampyrum lineare; photograph (c) Steven Lamonde, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Steven Lamonde, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-08-25

Melampyrum lineare Desr.

American cow-wheat; Linear cow-wheat; Narrow-leaved cow-wheat; Narrowleaf cowwheat

Orobanchaceae · Alberta, British Columbia +36

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Melampyrum lineare, photograph (c) The Wrong Industry, some rights reserved (CC BY)Melampyrum lineare, photograph (c) Bob Schwartz, some rights reserved (CC BY)Melampyrum lineare, photograph (c) Scott Ward, some rights reserved (CC BY)Melampyrum lineare, photograph (c) Scott Ward, some rights reserved (CC BY)Melampyrum lineare, photograph (c) Shelby Lyn Sanders, some rights reserved (CC BY)Melampyrum lineare, photograph (c) Shelby Lyn Sanders, some rights reserved (CC BY) 69 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-20.9°C
Record low -30.6 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
25°C
Jul at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,179mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
10–39DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Rain spread: 70% of the median year's rain takes 9 months, so no short rainy season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Melampyrum lineare, commonly called the narrowleaf cow wheat, is an herbaceous plant in the family Orobanchaceae. It is native to North America, where it is found in southern Canada and the northern United States, with an extension south in the Appalachian Mountains. It has a wide habitat tolerance, but is usually found in dry, acidic soil and somewhat exposed woodlands.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Melampyrum lineare", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads no short rainy season: 70% of the median year's rain (913 mm of 1,172 mm) takes 9 months, April to December. Mean temperature moves 25.2 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: October to June.

Rain

1,172 mm in the median year at the habitat, 913 mm of it April to December. Wettest month June at 105 mm, driest month February at 78 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 811 mm to 1,458 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,179 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,172 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 10 to 39 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 6, the highest 90th-percentile month 42).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -20.9 °C, the absolute minimum -30.6 °C, 6,665 frost nights in 44 years, 151.5 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 32.5 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low -8.8 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range -15.8 °C to -2.5 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 25.1 °C in July (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -20.9 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 56 to 61% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected +74 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Melampyrum lineare through the yearWarmest month July, mean daily high 25 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low -8.8 °C; 1,172 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.-40°-20°0°20°40°frost32.5° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-30.6° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125150mm rainDLI 10–39RH 56–61%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 1271 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C-1 / -8–51 / -6–75 / -1–1112 / 6–1618 / 12–2123 / 17–2525 / 21–2824 / 21–2720 / 17–2314 / 10–188 / 2–122 / -4–7
Night °C-9 / -16–-3-8 / -14–-2-4 / -8–12 / -1–68 / 5–1114 / 10–1717 / 14–1917 / 14–1913 / 10–167 / 4–101 / -3–5-5 / -11–0
Rain mm85 / 41–11278 / 30–10596 / 43–12999 / 58–12599 / 74–126105 / 81–132104 / 78–13598 / 80–123103 / 88–124103 / 78–131101 / 62–131101 / 47–130
DLI12 / 9–1418 / 16–2026 / 24–2732 / 31–3537 / 35–3939 / 37–4238 / 37–4133 / 32–3526 / 23–2918 / 15–2212 / 8–1510 / 6–12
RH %61 / 57–6759 / 56–6558 / 55–6156 / 55–5958 / 55–6159 / 57–6260 / 58–6360 / 59–6361 / 59–6360 / 58–6260 / 58–6461 / 57–67
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 1271 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (1596 records in those cells; 4 more cells hold records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cells are left out), with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 947:2163 (42.625, -71.825). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -30.6 °C, 1st-percentile night -20.9 °C, 99th-percentile day 32.5 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 1271 distinct grid cells holding 1596 of the 1600 in-range records (4 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 947:2163 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 42.50_-71.875, lapse-corrected +74 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 279 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeAlberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward I., Québec, Idaho, Montana, Washington, Illinois, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode I., Vermont, West Virginia, Delaware, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, District of Columbia · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker42.376, -71.465 · in the densest population, 651 records (34% of those in range)
Kew's description“hemiparasitic annual” · “temperate” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1938 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 1596 of them in the land cells it reads, of 1600 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 620 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 17 km away. 4 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 338 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
Other GBIF keysRecords also from GBIF's key 3725320 (Melampyrum lineare subsp. typicum Pennell): Kew's file holds it as Melampyrum lineare subsp. typicum Pennell (invalid under Melampyrum lineare Desr.); 20 records, from GBIF's search API on the day of the build.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 2° block of the 1938 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Melampyrum lineare, photograph 1did not loadMelampyrum lineare, photograph 2did not loadMelampyrum lineare, photograph 3did not loadMelampyrum lineare, photograph 4did not loadMelampyrum lineare, photograph 5did not loadMelampyrum lineare, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) The Wrong Industry, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Bob Schwartz, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Scott Ward, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Shelby Lyn Sanders, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Gaultheria procumbens Gaultheria procumbens Checkerberry Photo: CC BY, Erin LalimeComptonia peregrina Comptonia peregrina Sweet-fern Photo: CC BY, Evan M. RaskinDryopteris intermedia Dryopteris intermedia Intermediate Wood Fern Photo: CC BY, Andrew SebastianDulichium arundinaceum Dulichium arundinaceum Three-way sedge Photo: CC BY, Steven LamondeCypripedium acaule Cypripedium acaule Pink lady's-slipper Photo: CC BY, Erin LalimeAronia melanocarpa Aronia melanocarpa Black chokeberry Photo: CC BY, Lythronax246

Other Melampyrum 5 in the reference

Melampyrum arvense Melampyrum arvense Field cow-wheat Photo: CC BY, Antoine ThivolleMelampyrum cristatum Melampyrum cristatum Crested Cow-wheat Photo: CC BY, Tatyana SovaMelampyrum nemorosum Melampyrum nemorosum Ivan da Maria Photo: CC BY, Oleksandr ShynderMelampyrum pratense Melampyrum pratense Common cow-wheat Photo: CC BY, Vladimír FukaMelampyrum sylvaticum Melampyrum sylvaticum Small Cow-wheat Photo: CC BY, Thomas Ebner

Names & registers

Also known as Melampyrum americanum; Melampyrum brachiatum; Melampyrum lanceolatum; Melampyrum latifolium; Melampyrum lineare f. brachiatum and 8 more. (GBIF Backbone)

Under another author Melampyrum sylvaticum Hook. is an older name of this species, not Melampyrum sylvaticum, a species of the reference. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Orobanchaceae
Described by
Desr.
Native to
Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba +35
Wild records
1938 in range · 620 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredasked 2026-10-22GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 20 records of GBIF's key 3725320, Melampyrum lineare subsp. typicum Pennell (Kew's file holds it as Melampyrum lineare subsp. typicum Pennell (invalid under Melampyrum lineare Desr.)): GBIF occurrence search API; 14 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (7 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 7 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 42.50_-71.875, lapse-corrected +74 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22IPNI and POWO linked by Kew's number for Melampyrum lineare Desr. (the item's: IPNI 156223-2, POWO 805695-1)
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 75 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…