Sky-blue nodding bells on hair-thin stalks, above narrow stem leaves and withered round basal ones, on dry grassland and sea cliffs in late summer
Harebell, Campanula rotundifolia.
Nature · Wildflowers & flowers
Harebell
Native · flowers Jul–Sep · dry grassland, heaths, dunes and cliff tops
Campanula rotundifolia — Campanulaceae
A slender perennial whose nodding, papery, sky-blue bells dance on wiry stalks in late summer, on everything from chalk downs to sea cliffs and mountain ledges. Despite its fragile look, Plantlife calls it incredibly tough and resilient. In Scotland it is the 'bluebell', a name that causes endless confusion with the woodland flower of the same name farther south.
How to spot them
- ▸Nodding, bell-shaped, pale blue-violet flowers with five pointed lobes, on hair-thin wiry stalks
- ▸Two kinds of leaf: small rounded basal leaves (rotundifolia = round-leaved) that wither early, and very narrow linear leaves up the stem
- ▸Slender plants 15–40 cm tall, in open, dry, well-drained grassland from dunes to hill tops
- ▸Flowers July to September, long after the woodland bluebell has finished
- ▸Bluebell (Hyacinthoides non-scripta) is a spring woodland bulb with a one-sided arching spike, not a wiry late-summer grassland plant
How to know it
In Scotland this is the 'bluebell of Scotland', though it is a different species from the woodland flower better known by that name south of the border
Harebell — the 'Scottish bluebell'.
Other names include 'witch bells', 'old man's bell' (the old man being the devil) and 'cuckoo's shoe'
Harebell (Plantlife).
In County Antrim it is a fairy plant, the 'goblin's thimble', and it is the county flower of Dumfriesshire, Yorkshire and Antrim
Harebell (Plantlife).
Its specific epithet means 'round-leaved', for the basal leaves that wither before the flowers open
Campanula rotundifolia — harebell.
Dreaming of this flower is said to symbolise true love; in the Victorian language of flowers it stands for childhood, grief, humility and submission
Harebell (Plantlife).
Quick-fire facts
- •Family Campanulaceae; Campanula is Latin for 'little bell'
- •Plantlife gives a flowering season of July to September, a height of 15–40 cm and a habitat of dry grassy places from mountain tops to sand dunes
- •The 'Scottish bluebell' confusion: in Scotland the harebell is called bluebell, and the woodland bluebell (Hyacinthoides non-scripta) is usually called the wild hyacinth; they are in different families (Campanulaceae versus Asparagaceae)
- •Cannot tolerate damp; at home on chalk, acid heath, cliff top and beneath bracken alike
- •Plantlife: county flower of Dumfriesshire, Yorkshire and County Antrim
- •Also known as witch bells, old man's bell and cuckoo's shoe; in Antrim, the goblin's or Puck's thimble
- •In the language of flowers it stands for childhood, grief, humility and submission
- •Plantlife calls it generally stable, with some local declines at the edges of its range
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Sources
- Plantlife — Harebell (Campanula rotundifolia)
- Woodland Trust — Bluebell (Hyacinthoides non-scripta)