Common cow wheat, and a funeral

I doubt the name "common cow wheat" would be familiar to many since this is an insignificant plant  of old woodland which I got to know only a few years ago. Now, it's one of those plants I greet  like someone I meet only occasionally but nevertheless feel relieved to be able to recognise and to recall their name.

Common cow wheat not actually that common because it a plant of old woodland, which is fast disappearing. It's  bound into the  ecology of its habitat by the fact that, on the one hand, it takes some of its nutrients from the roots of surrounding plants, and on the other, it relies on wood ants to disperse its seeds: They are attractive to ants because they contain oil and in addition have evolved to resemble ant eggs in shape. 
And there's more: common cow wheat is the food plant of Heath Fritillary butterfly larvae.
All of which goes to show how intensely interwoven is the ecology of individual species. Lose one component and the rest, like a jenga tower, will topple and fall.

(These flowers are actually quite small: the image is a close-up.)

https://www.plantlife.org.uk/uk/discover-wild-plants-nature/plant-fungi-species/common-cow-wheat
https://www.first-nature.com/flowers/melampyrum-pratense.php

On the way back from where I went I noticed a gathering of people in black filling the street outside one of the town's chapels (extra). A funeral of some local worthy had just ended and the mourners had emerged to meet and greet and exchange condolences, news, and whatever else was on their minds; a babble of voices drifted up the road. All were dressed in mourning attire, some in smart suits and others in whatever was deemed most sombre in their wardrobe. Gradually they peeled away to cars or pubs or  simply to walk home.
 Another sort of ecology, and one that has been missing for the past couple of years, in which human beings interrelate for personal and  mutual benefit, I reflected.