The Milkwort has flowers which are not always the same colour. You may
find them either pink, or blue, or white, but I think the blue Milkwort
is the commonest. It blooms all summer.
The flowers grow on spikes in which the buds are always at the top, and
further down the same spike there are leaves. Each flower has five
sepals. Three are only small green strips, but inside these three there
are two which are large and broad, and beautifully coloured. These look
like petals.
When the flower is withered these two sepals change colour and become
green.
The real petals are paler in colour than the sepals. The lowest one is
cut up at the end into little strips like a blue fringe, and there are
two small side petals as well as two upper ones, which are so tiny that
they are merely scales.
The leaves resemble narrow straps. They grow alternately on the stem,
and they are dark green above and pale green below.
The Milkwort lies close to the ground among the grass. You would never
notice it, were it not for its beautiful spikes of blue, pink-white
flowers.