Campanula trachelium

Campanula trachelium, the nettle-leaved bellflower,[1] is a species of bellflower. It is a Eurasian blue wildflower native to Denmark and England and now naturalized in southeast Ireland. It is also found southward through much of Europe into Africa.

Campanula trachelium
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Asterales
Family: Campanulaceae
Genus: Campanula
Species:
C. trachelium
Binomial name
Campanula trachelium

Common names

The alternate name throatwort is derived from an old belief that C. trachelium is a cure for sore throat, and the species name trachelium refers to its use as treatment of the throat in folk medicine.[2]

Other folknames include Our Lady's Bells because the color blue was identified with the Virgin Mary's scarf, veil, or shawl; Coventry Bells because C. trachelium was especially common in fields around Coventry; and "Bats-in-the-Belfry" or in the singular "Bat-in-the-Belfry", because the stamens inside the flower were like bats hanging in the bell of a church steeple.[3]

Description
Close-up showing the fine hairs on the leaves and petals of C. trachelium
on the GR 5 by the river Doubs

Campanula trachelium is a perennial plant with one or more unbranched, often reddish, square-edged stems that are roughly hairy. The leaves grow alternately up the stems. The lower leaves are long-stalked and ovate with a heart-shaped base. The upper leaves have no stalks and are ovate or lanceolate, hairy with toothed margins. The inflorescence is a one sided spike with a few slightly nodding flowers. Each flower has five sepals which are fused, erect and hairy, and the five violet (or occasionally white) petals are fused into a bell that is hairy inside. There are five stamens and a pistil formed from three fused carpels. The fruit is a hairy, nodding capsule.[4]

Habitat

Campanula trachelium likes humus-rich soil and is found in broad-leaved woodlands, coppices, hedgerows and the margins of forests.[4]

References
  1. "BSBI List 2007". Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland. Archived from the original (xls) on 2015-01-25. Retrieved 2014-10-17.
  2. "Campanula trachelium 'Bernice' - Dorset Perennials". dorsetperennials.co.uk.
  3. "Paghat's Garden". www.paghat.com.
  4. "Nettle-leaved Bellflower: Campanula trachelium". NatureGate. Retrieved 2013-12-30.

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