Jokingly I call the plant 'the tricolor' because it comes in the three colours of the French flag. The milkworts (there are several species) are common in May (this year in April). Why the name Milkwort? Here are some thoughts. The name could well be a case of mistaken identity. A Greek, Dioscorides, writing in the 1st century, wrote of a plant which was supposed to increase the production of milk – in Greek Polygalon –'much milk' . The herbalists of the 16^th century thought (and they admitted to some confusion) that it could be this plant. Is it possible that the name was first used at this time?  The herbalists supposed either that it increased the milk yield of the cows, or it was a good medicine to increase the milk of nursing mothers. These virtues of the plant seem unfounded. Perhaps some such common name existed for the plant long before the herbal books were written and that is why they were so ready to adopt it as being that of the Greek original? If you look at a flower with the eye of a country child, it bears a resemblance to the side of a cow with an udder. Looking at the photo, you can see the teats, as it were, projecting beneath the back end of a cow. That thought appeals to me. Some French books call it herbe à lait , but that is probably a later invention.

Milkwort is beautiful. It decorates many a weedy lane side. It flowers at the time of the catholic custom of rogation-tide, when religious processions patrolled the countryside to bless the fields and pray for good harvests. The flowers therefore became the customary decoration for the processionary crosses and to garland the young children on the walk. That gave it the name of 'cross-flower' and also 'gang-flower'.

One supposes, not necessarily correctly, that the three colour forms are genetically controlled, but the ecological reason is unknown. The flower itself is intricate. Two of the five sepals are like petals, large and coloured. The other three are small and green. There are only three petals. Two make a form of hood, and the third forms a tube with a cup shaped end bearing a group of finger like projections bearing a likeness to an udder. The cup surrounds and encloses eight stamens all crammed into a very tiny space, so that the pollen must fall into the cup. The stigma also lies in this cup. When any insect visits the flower, any pollen it carries will necessarily get mixed up with the pollen already there. This supposes that the flower must be sterile to its own pollen; otherwise the process of pollination is futile. There is no smell to the human sense.

As the fruit develops the two coloured petal like sepals, become much larger, lose their colour, and eventually become brown scales protecting the fruit. Only two seeds lie in each fruit. When the fruit splits open these fall. Each seed has a large three lobed appendage which ants find attractive. So the seeds are carried off by ants to a new location. If they are buried, they will not grow, because the wet seeds will only grow when exposed to light. This is a common phenomenon in nature, and one can experience it with foxgloves and lettuces.>

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