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Bluebells (Hyacinthoides) - plants - April 2018
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===General information===
The UK is an international stronghold for bluebells, with more than a quarter of the world's population found here.
The native bluebell is losing ground to an insidious competitor: the Spanish bluebell. Introduced by the Victorians as a garden plant, the Spanish bluebell has made it 'over the garden wall' and out into the wild. Here, it crossbreeds with our native plants and produces fertile hybrids with a mix of characteristics.
Bluebells transform our woodland in springtime. The carpet of intense blue under the opening tree canopy is one of our greatest woodland spectacles. It's not surprising that bluebell is one of the nation's best-loved wild flowers.
Bluebells are perennial bulbous herbs with flowering stems to about 50cm tall. They spend most of the year as bulbs underground and emerge to flower from April onwards.
The leaves are around 7mm to 25mm wide and 45cm long. Strap-shaped with a pointed tip. They are smooth and hairless with a succulent appearance.
The flowers are up to 20 sweetly-scented flowers that are borne on a flower stalk which droops or nods to one side. Flowers are bell-shaped and can be blue, white or rarely pink. Each flower has 6 petals with recurved (up-turned) tips. Anthers have white-cream coloured pollen.
British or English bluebell, Hyacinthoides non-scripta, has a range that extends from the UK into northern Europe (France, Netherlands, Belgium) and south along the Atlanic coast into northwestern Spain.
The Spanish bluebell (Hyacinthoides hispanica) is very similar. This is a closely related species with a natural range that extends through the western part of the Iberian peninsula in Spain and Portugal. H. hispanica was introduced into Britain in the late 1600s as an ornamental.
Hybrid bluebell (Hyacinthoides x massartiana). This is British-Spanish hybrid between H. non-scripta and H. hispanica bluebells. It was first recorded in the wild in the UK in 1963. Native bluebells share many of the same characteristics as hybrid bluebells so it may be tricky to tell them apart.
UK native bluebells may be under threat because they cross breed with non-native bluebells. The hardy and vigorous hybrids spread quickly, out-competing our native bluebells and diluting their gene pool.
This early flowering makes the most of the sunlight that reaches the woodland floor before the full woodland canopy casts its shade. Millions of bulbs may grow closely together in one wood, creating one of nature’s most stunning displays.
Bees, hoverflies, butterflies and other insects feed on the nectar of bluebell. Their flowers provide an important early source of nectar.
Bees can 'steal' the nectar from bluebells flowers by biting a hole in the bottom of the bell, reaching the nectar without pollinating the flower.
gummy bluebell sap was used to bind pages into the spines of books. Bronze Age people used bluebell to set feathers upon arrows, known as fletching. Bluebell bulbs were crushed to provide starch for the ruffs of Elizabethan collars and sleeves.
Though little used in modern medicine, the bulb has diuretic and styptic properties.
According to folklore, one who hears a bluebell ring will soon die! Legend also says that a field of bluebells is intricately woven with fairy enchantments.
All plant parts contain glycosides and are poisonous. The sap can cause contact dermatitis.
Bluebells synthesise a wide range of chemicals with potential medicinal properties. They contain at least 15 biologically active compounds that may provide them with protection against insects and animals.
In the United Kingdom, H. non-scripta is a protected species under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. Landowners are prohibited from removing common bluebells on their land for sale and it is a criminal offence to remove the bulbs of wild common bluebells.
This legislation was strengthened in 1998 under Schedule 8 of the Act making any trade in wild common bluebell bulbs or seeds an offence, punishable by fines of up to £5,000 per bulb. The species is not protected in the Republic of Ireland.
===Other common names===
wild hyacinth
wood bell
fairy flower
harebell
===*Useful websites===
===Scientific classification===
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Monocots
Order: Asparagales
Family: Asparagaceae
Subfamily: Scilloideae
Genus: Hyacinthoides
*Information sourced from the above websites
The UK is an international stronghold for bluebells, with more than a quarter of the world's population found here.
The native bluebell is losing ground to an insidious competitor: the Spanish bluebell. Introduced by the Victorians as a garden plant, the Spanish bluebell has made it 'over the garden wall' and out into the wild. Here, it crossbreeds with our native plants and produces fertile hybrids with a mix of characteristics.
Bluebells transform our woodland in springtime. The carpet of intense blue under the opening tree canopy is one of our greatest woodland spectacles. It's not surprising that bluebell is one of the nation's best-loved wild flowers.
Bluebells are perennial bulbous herbs with flowering stems to about 50cm tall. They spend most of the year as bulbs underground and emerge to flower from April onwards.
The leaves are around 7mm to 25mm wide and 45cm long. Strap-shaped with a pointed tip. They are smooth and hairless with a succulent appearance.
The flowers are up to 20 sweetly-scented flowers that are borne on a flower stalk which droops or nods to one side. Flowers are bell-shaped and can be blue, white or rarely pink. Each flower has 6 petals with recurved (up-turned) tips. Anthers have white-cream coloured pollen.
British or English bluebell, Hyacinthoides non-scripta, has a range that extends from the UK into northern Europe (France, Netherlands, Belgium) and south along the Atlanic coast into northwestern Spain.
The Spanish bluebell (Hyacinthoides hispanica) is very similar. This is a closely related species with a natural range that extends through the western part of the Iberian peninsula in Spain and Portugal. H. hispanica was introduced into Britain in the late 1600s as an ornamental.
Hybrid bluebell (Hyacinthoides x massartiana). This is British-Spanish hybrid between H. non-scripta and H. hispanica bluebells. It was first recorded in the wild in the UK in 1963. Native bluebells share many of the same characteristics as hybrid bluebells so it may be tricky to tell them apart.
UK native bluebells may be under threat because they cross breed with non-native bluebells. The hardy and vigorous hybrids spread quickly, out-competing our native bluebells and diluting their gene pool.
This early flowering makes the most of the sunlight that reaches the woodland floor before the full woodland canopy casts its shade. Millions of bulbs may grow closely together in one wood, creating one of nature’s most stunning displays.
Bees, hoverflies, butterflies and other insects feed on the nectar of bluebell. Their flowers provide an important early source of nectar.
Bees can 'steal' the nectar from bluebells flowers by biting a hole in the bottom of the bell, reaching the nectar without pollinating the flower.
gummy bluebell sap was used to bind pages into the spines of books. Bronze Age people used bluebell to set feathers upon arrows, known as fletching. Bluebell bulbs were crushed to provide starch for the ruffs of Elizabethan collars and sleeves.
Though little used in modern medicine, the bulb has diuretic and styptic properties.
According to folklore, one who hears a bluebell ring will soon die! Legend also says that a field of bluebells is intricately woven with fairy enchantments.
All plant parts contain glycosides and are poisonous. The sap can cause contact dermatitis.
Bluebells synthesise a wide range of chemicals with potential medicinal properties. They contain at least 15 biologically active compounds that may provide them with protection against insects and animals.
In the United Kingdom, H. non-scripta is a protected species under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. Landowners are prohibited from removing common bluebells on their land for sale and it is a criminal offence to remove the bulbs of wild common bluebells.
This legislation was strengthened in 1998 under Schedule 8 of the Act making any trade in wild common bluebell bulbs or seeds an offence, punishable by fines of up to £5,000 per bulb. The species is not protected in the Republic of Ireland.
===Other common names===
wild hyacinth
wood bell
fairy flower
harebell
===*Useful websites===
===Scientific classification===
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Monocots
Order: Asparagales
Family: Asparagaceae
Subfamily: Scilloideae
Genus: Hyacinthoides
*Information sourced from the above websites
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