Harebell
Encyclopedia
Campanula rotundifolia (Harebell) is a rhizomatous
perennial
flowering plant
in the bellflower family
native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere
.
In Scotland
, it is often known as the Bluebell. Elsewhere in Britain, bluebell refers to Hyacinthoides non-scripta
, and in North America, bluebell refers to Virginia Bluebell
.
are rounded to heart-shaped, usually slightly toothed, with prominent hydathodes, and often wither early. Leaves on flowering stems are long and thin and the upper ones are unstemmed.
Flower
s have five violet-blue, pink, or white petal
s fused together into a bell shape, about 15 mm (0.590551181102362 in) long and five long, pointed green sepal
s behind them. The petal lobes are triangular and curve outwards. They bloom on long thin stems either singly or in loose clusters from late spring
to autumn
. The flowers are pollinated by bees, but can self-pollinate.
The seeds are produced in a capsule about 3 – diameter. The seeds are released by pores at the base of the capsule. Seedlings are minute, but established plants can compete with tall grass.
Like other Campanulas, all parts of the plant exude white latex
when injured or broken.
and heath
s in Britain
, northern Europe
, and North America
. The plant often successfully colonises cracks in walls or cliff faces and dunes.
It occurs as tetraploid
or hexaploid populations in Britain and Ireland, but diploids occur widely in continental Europe.
.
It is the county flower
of Yorkshire
in the United Kingdom.
William Shakespeare
makes a reference to 'the azured hare-bell' in Cymbeline
John Clare
draws attention to the brightness of the flowers of the Harebell in the dark of the wood.
Christina Rossetti
(1830 - 1894)wrote a poem entitled 'Hope is Like A Harebell'
Emily Dickinson
uses the harebell as an anology for desire that grows cold once that which is cherished is attained.
Rhizome
In botany and dendrology, a rhizome is a characteristically horizontal stem of a plant that is usually found underground, often sending out roots and shoots from its nodes...
perennial
Perennial plant
A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives for more than two years. The term is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter lived annuals and biennials. The term is sometimes misused by commercial gardeners or horticulturalists to describe only herbaceous perennials...
flowering plant
Flowering plant
The flowering plants , also known as Angiospermae or Magnoliophyta, are the most diverse group of land plants. Angiosperms are seed-producing plants like the gymnosperms and can be distinguished from the gymnosperms by a series of synapomorphies...
in the bellflower family
Campanulaceae
The family Campanulaceae , of the order Asterales, contains about 2000 species in 70 genera of herbaceous plants, shrubs, and rarely small trees, often with milky non-toxic sap...
native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere
Northern Hemisphere
The Northern Hemisphere is the half of a planet that is north of its equator—the word hemisphere literally means “half sphere”. It is also that half of the celestial sphere north of the celestial equator...
.
In Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, it is often known as the Bluebell. Elsewhere in Britain, bluebell refers to Hyacinthoides non-scripta
Common Bluebell
Hyacinthoides non-scripta, commonly known as the common bluebell, is a spring-flowering bulbous perennial plant. -Taxonomy:...
, and in North America, bluebell refers to Virginia Bluebell
Virginia Bluebell
The Virginia Bluebell is a spring ephemeral plant with bell-shaped sky-blue flowers opening from pink buds, native to moist woodland in eastern North America.Leaves are rounded and gray-green, borne on a stem up to 60 cm high...
.
Description
Basal leavesLeaf
A leaf is an organ of a vascular plant, as defined in botanical terms, and in particular in plant morphology. Foliage is a mass noun that refers to leaves as a feature of plants....
are rounded to heart-shaped, usually slightly toothed, with prominent hydathodes, and often wither early. Leaves on flowering stems are long and thin and the upper ones are unstemmed.
Flower
Flower
A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to effect reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism for the union of sperm with eggs...
s have five violet-blue, pink, or white petal
Petal
Petals are modified leaves that surround the reproductive parts of flowers. They often are brightly colored or unusually shaped to attract pollinators. Together, all of the petals of a flower are called a corolla. Petals are usually accompanied by another set of special leaves called sepals lying...
s fused together into a bell shape, about 15 mm (0.590551181102362 in) long and five long, pointed green sepal
Sepal
A sepal is a part of the flower of angiosperms . Collectively the sepals form the calyx, which is the outermost whorl of parts that form a flower. Usually green, sepals have the typical function of protecting the petals when the flower is in bud...
s behind them. The petal lobes are triangular and curve outwards. They bloom on long thin stems either singly or in loose clusters from late spring
Spring (season)
Spring is one of the four temperate seasons, the transition period between winter and summer. Spring and "springtime" refer to the season, and broadly to ideas of rebirth, renewal and regrowth. The specific definition of the exact timing of "spring" varies according to local climate, cultures and...
to autumn
Autumn
Autumn is one of the four temperate seasons. Autumn marks the transition from summer into winter usually in September or March when the arrival of night becomes noticeably earlier....
. The flowers are pollinated by bees, but can self-pollinate.
The seeds are produced in a capsule about 3 – diameter. The seeds are released by pores at the base of the capsule. Seedlings are minute, but established plants can compete with tall grass.
Like other Campanulas, all parts of the plant exude white latex
Latex
Latex is the stable dispersion of polymer microparticles in an aqueous medium. Latexes may be natural or synthetic.Latex as found in nature is a milky fluid found in 10% of all flowering plants . It is a complex emulsion consisting of proteins, alkaloids, starches, sugars, oils, tannins, resins,...
when injured or broken.
Adaptations
If exposed to moist cool conditions during the summer no pause in vegetative growth is exhibited, which suggests that temperature is a limiting factor. C. rotundifolia is more inclined to occupy climates that have an average temperature below 0°C in the cold months and above 10°C in the summer.Habitat
Harebells are native to dry, nutrient-poor grasslandGrassland
Grasslands are areas where the vegetation is dominated by grasses and other herbaceous plants . However, sedge and rush families can also be found. Grasslands occur naturally on all continents except Antarctica...
and heath
Heath (habitat)
A heath or heathland is a dwarf-shrub habitat found on mainly low quality acidic soils, characterised by open, low growing woody vegetation, often dominated by plants of the Ericaceae. There are some clear differences between heath and moorland...
s in Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
, northern Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, and North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
. The plant often successfully colonises cracks in walls or cliff faces and dunes.
Forms
The species is very variable in form.It occurs as tetraploid
Polyploidy
Polyploid is a term used to describe cells and organisms containing more than two paired sets of chromosomes. Most eukaryotic species are diploid, meaning they have two sets of chromosomes — one set inherited from each parent. However polyploidy is found in some organisms and is especially common...
or hexaploid populations in Britain and Ireland, but diploids occur widely in continental Europe.
Culture
The Harebell is dedicated to Saint DominicSaint Dominic
Saint Dominic , also known as Dominic of Osma, often called Dominic de Guzmán and Domingo Félix de Guzmán was the founder of the Friars Preachers, popularly called the Dominicans or Order of Preachers , a Catholic religious order...
.
It is the county flower
County flowers of the United Kingdom
The following are the flowers selected for the historic counties of the United Kingdom in Plantlife's 2002 "County Flowers" campaign...
of Yorkshire
Yorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
in the United Kingdom.
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
makes a reference to 'the azured hare-bell' in Cymbeline
Cymbeline
Cymbeline , also known as Cymbeline, King of Britain or The Tragedy of Cymbeline, is a play by William Shakespeare, based on legends concerning the early Celtic British King Cunobelinus. Although listed as a tragedy in the First Folio, modern critics often classify Cymbeline as a romance...
- With fairest flowers,
- Whilst summer lasts, and I live here, Fidele,
- I'll sweeten thy sad grave: thou shalt not lack
- The flower that's like thy face, pale primrose, nor
- The azured hare-bell, like thy veins; no, nor
- The leaf of eglantine, whom not to slander,
- Out-sweeten’d not thy breath.In Jessica Kerr's and Opelia Dowden's Shakespeare's Flowers published in 1970 they infer that Shakespeare was actually making reference to a BluebellBluebell-Plants:* genus Hyacinthoides** Common Bluebell ** Spanish Bluebell * genus Mertensia** Virginia Bluebell * Scottish Bluebell...
(Hyacinthoides non-scripta)
John Clare
John Clare
John Clare was an English poet, born the son of a farm labourer who came to be known for his celebratory representations of the English countryside and his lamentation of its disruption. His poetry underwent a major re-evaluation in the late 20th century and he is often now considered to be among...
draws attention to the brightness of the flowers of the Harebell in the dark of the wood.
- By the hare-bell 's hazure sky,
- That grows in woods, and groves so fair,
- Where love I'd meet thee there.
Christina Rossetti
Christina Rossetti
Christina Georgina Rossetti was an English poet who wrote a variety of romantic, devotional, and children's poems...
(1830 - 1894)wrote a poem entitled 'Hope is Like A Harebell'
- Hope is like a harebell, trembling from its birth,
- Love is like a rose, the joy of all the earth,
- Faith is like a lily, lifted high and white,
- Love is like a lovely rose, the world’s delight.
- Harebells and sweet lilies show a thornless growth,
- But the rose with all its thorns excels them both.
Emily Dickinson
Emily Dickinson
Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was an American poet. Born in Amherst, Massachusetts, to a successful family with strong community ties, she lived a mostly introverted and reclusive life...
uses the harebell as an anology for desire that grows cold once that which is cherished is attained.
- Did the Harebell loose her girdle
- To the lover Bee
- Would the Bee the Harebell hallow
- Much as formerly?
- Did the paradise - persuaded
- Yield her moat of pearl
- Would the Eden be an Eden
- Or the Earl -an Earl
External links
- USDA Plants Profile
- Native Plant Identification Network
- Paghat's Garden
- Missouri Plants
- Montana Plant Life
- Robert W. Freckman Herbarium — University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point
- Nature of California — Las Pilitas Nursery
- Vascular Plants of the Gila Wilderness
- CalPhotos