Campanula patula

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Campanula patula
CampanulaPatula.jpg
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Asterales
Family: Campanulaceae
Genus: Campanula
Species:
C. patula
Binomial name
Campanula patula
L.

Campanula patula or spreading bellflower is a plant species of the genus Campanula . It can grow to more than half a meter high. [1] This delicate bellflower bears lateral branches of pale blue or white flowers that are upright and funnel shaped. The leaves are narrow and pointed. Branches are often supported by the surrounding vegetation, so the plants can appear prostrate. The main difference between this and other bellflowers is that the petals in the bell are spread out and more pointed and this gives this species its common name.

Contents

Description

Spreading bellflower is a biennial herbaceous plant growing to a height of 25 to 80 centimetres (9.8 to 31.5 in). The stem is branched, erect and wiry and often reddish near the base. In its first year, this plant produces a rosette of short-stalked, slender, spatulate leaves. In the second year it sends up one or more flowering stalks. The leaves on these are alternate, linear and unstalked, the margins having rounded teeth. The inflorescence is a few-flowered terminal raceme. The calyx is fused and has five triangular lobes, sharp tipped and spreading. The corolla is five-lobed, 20 to 25 mm (0.8 to 1.0 in) long with five violet-blue (or occasionally white) fused petals. The corolla lobes are longer than they are wide. There are five stamens and a pistil formed from three fused carpels. The fruit is a strongly-veined, conical capsule. The flowering period is from June to September. [2]

Distribution and habitat

Single flower Campanula patula - Harilik kellukas.jpg
Single flower

Spreading bellflower is native to temperate parts of Europe and widely naturalised elsewhere. Its natural habitat is meadows, banks, open woodland, clearings, roadside verges, fallow fields and waste ground. In the United Kingdom it is rare in the wild, occurring mainly on infertile banks and rock outcrops. It needs light for the seeds to germinate so may reappear after many years of absence when the soil is disturbed. [2] [3]

A bellflower weevil in the genus Miarus is associated with this plant.

Related Research Articles

<i>Campanula</i> Genus of flowering plants in the bellflower family Campanulaceae

Campanula is the type genus of the Campanulaceae family of flowering plants. Campanula are commonly known as bellflowers and take both their common and scientific names from the bell-shaped flowers — campanula is Latin for "little bell".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Campanulaceae</span> Family of flowering plants comprising bellflowers

The family Campanulaceae, of the order Asterales, contains nearly 2400 species in 84 genera of herbaceous plants, shrubs, and rarely small trees, often with milky sap. Among them are several familiar garden plants belonging to the genera Campanula (bellflower), Lobelia, and Platycodon (balloonflower). Campanula rapunculus and Codonopsis lanceolata are eaten as vegetables. Lobelia inflata, L. siphilitica and L. tupa and others have been used as medicinal plants. Campanula rapunculoides may be a troublesome weed, particularly in gardens, while Legousia spp. may occur in arable fields.

<i>Campanula rotundifolia</i> Species of flowering plant

Campanula rotundifolia, the harebell, Scottish bluebell, or bluebell of Scotland, is a species of flowering plant in the bellflower family Campanulaceae. This herbaceous perennial is found throughout the temperate regions of the northern hemisphere. In Scotland, it is often known simply as bluebell. It is the floral emblem of Sweden where it is known as small bluebell. It produces its violet-blue, bell-shaped flowers in late summer and autumn.

<i>Hemiandra</i> Genus of flowering plants

Hemiandra is a genus of nine species of flowering plants of the family Lamiaceae and is endemic to Western Australia. Plants in the genus Hemiandra are shrubs with sessile leaves arranged in opposite pairs, petals with five lobes arranged in two "lips" and the fruit a capsule usually containing four nuts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Calyceraceae</span> Family of flowering plants

Calyceraceae is a plant family in the order Asterales. The natural distribution of the about sixty species belonging to this family is restricted to the southern half of South America. The species of the family resemble both the family Asteraceae and the Dipsacaceae.

<i>Campanula medium</i> Species of flowering plant

Campanula medium, common name Canterbury bells, is an annual or biennial flowering plant of the genus Campanula, belonging to the family Campanulaceae. In floriography, it represents gratitude, or faith and constancy.

<i>Campanula cervicaria</i> Species of flowering plant

Campanula cervicaria, the bristly bellflower, is a species of flowering plant in the bellflower family Campanulaceae. The plant is roughly hairy and the flowers are about 1–2 centimetres (0.4–0.8 in) long, light blue and are grouped together.

<i>Campanula latifolia</i> Species of flowering plant

Campanula latifolia, the giant bellflower, is a species of bellflower in the family Campanulaceae. It is also known as the large campanula and the wide-leaved bellflower. It is native to Europe and western Asia and is widely grown as an ornamental plant.

<i>Campanula trachelium</i> Species of flowering plant

Campanula trachelium, the nettle-leaved bellflower, 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.

<i>Campanula rapunculoides</i> Species of flowering plant

Campanula rapunculoides, known by the common names creeping bellflower, rampion bellflower, rover bellflower, garden bluebell, creeping bluebell, purple bell, garden harebell, and creeping campanula, is a perennial herbaceous plant of the genus Campanula, belonging to the family Campanulaceae. Native to central and southern Europe and west Asia, in some parts of North America it is an extremely invasive species.

<i>Campanula persicifolia</i> Species of flowering plant

Campanula persicifolia, the peach-leaved bellflower, is a flowering plant species in the family Campanulaceae. It is an herbaceous perennial growing to 1 m. Its flowers are cup-shaped and can be either lilac-blue or white. Its foliage is narrow and glossy with a bright green appearance.

<i>Campanula rapunculus</i> Species of flowering plant

Campanula rapunculus, common name rampion bellflower, rampion, rover bellflower, or rapunzel, is a species of bellflower (Campanula) in the family Campanulaceae.

<i>Campanula alliariifolia</i> Species of flowering plant in the bellflower family Campanulaceae

Campanula alliariifolia is a species of flowering plant in the bellflower family Campanulaceae. It is native to the Caucasus and Turkey and it is grown as an ornamental plant. Common names include Cornish bellflower.

<i>Porterella</i> Genus of flowering plants

Porterella is a monotypic genus of flowering plants in the bellflower family containing the single species Porterella carnosula, which is known by the common name fleshy porterella, or simply porterella.

<i>Favratia</i> Genus of Campanulaceae plants

Favratia zoysii, known commonly as Zois' bellflower, Zoysi's harebell, or crimped bellflower, is the sole member of the genus Favratia, closely related to Campanula (bellflowers).

<i>Campanula piperi</i> Species of flowering plant

Campanula piperi is a species of flowering plant in the bellflower family, Campanulaceae. It is native to the Olympic Mountains on the Olympic Peninsula in the U.S. state of Washington. It has also been noted on Vancouver Island, British Columbia.

<i>Campanula spicata</i> Species of flowering plant

Campanula spicata, common name the spiked bellflower, is a herbaceous biennial or perennial plant of the genus Campanula belonging to the family Campanulaceae.

<i>Pachyphytum</i> Genus of succulents

Pachyphytum is a small genus of succulents in the family Crassulaceae, native to Mexico, at elevations from 600 to 1,500 metres. The name comes from the ancient Greek pachys (=thick) and phyton (=plant) because of the shape of the leaves.

<i>Otholobium saxosum</i> Shrublet in the family Fabaceae from South Africa

Otholobium saxosum is a small shrublet of up to 20 cm (7.9 in) high that has been assigned to the Pea family, with branches upright or horizontal at the base with rising tips. It has sessile, clover-like leaves and white, pea-like flowers that grow in triplets in the axils of the upper leaves of new, short side shoots. The species is only known from Garcia's Pass, Western Cape province of South Africa. Flowering occurs in October and November.

<i>Smithiastrum prenanthoides</i> Species of flowering plant

Smithiastrum prenanthoides, commonly known as the California harebell, is a perennial flowering plant in the Campanulaceae. It was formerly classified as a member of either Campanula or Asyneuma and was re-split following the discovery that genera in the family are polyphyletic. S. prenanthoides belongs to one of several small genera in the Campanulaceae native to California and grows in montane coniferous forests.

References

  1. Anderberg, Arne; Anderberg, Anna-Lena. "Campanula patula". Den virtuella floran (in Swedish). Swedish Museum of Natural History . Retrieved 27 November 2010.
  2. 1 2 "Spreading Bellflower: Campanula patula". NatureGate. Retrieved 2013-12-31.
  3. "Campanula patula (Spreading Bellflower)". Online Atlas of the British and Irish Flora. Retrieved 2013-12-31.