Some similarities to : Clustered Bellflower but that has striking violet flowers that are clustered together at the top without flower stalks.
Uniquely identifiable characteristics
Distinguishing Feature : The very wide bowl-shape (almost washing-up-bowl like) shape of the 'bell'.
No relation to : Peach [a plant with similar name].
Grown in gardens, but readily escapes to woods and scrubs. A blue to pale blue shade, azure perhaps. The only bellflower to have such a very wide open bell end in relation to the length of the bell, and a stigma that splits into three for over 2/3rds of its length.
Like many Bellflowers it is said to ooze a sticky white liquid from broken stems, but it is not toxic, and may even be edible. One source says this milky sap contains the diabetic 'sugar' Inulin which certainly is edible. Many other sources claim that most bellflowers have a sticky milky sap, but none say which Bellflowers do not!
VIOLDELPHIN
Violdelphin is the anthocyanin that colours the blue flowers from the Campanula genus. It consists of an Anthocyanidin (Delphinidin) shown in blue, two para-HydroxyBenzoyl (4-HydroxyBenzoyl , derived from 4-HydrozyBenzoic Acid) moieties (shown in green) and four sugar units shown in red comprising three glucosyl units and one rhamnosyl unit. Compare this with Malonylawobanin anthocyanin found in Bluebells . The p-hydroxybenzoyl and sugar unit comprise a chromone which influences the light absorption spectrum and hence perceived colour. (In Malonylawobanin p-Hydroxybenzoyl moieties are absent, replaced instead by a Coumaryl unit).
Violdelphin is also found in the blue flowers of Delphinium hybridum, a horticultural plant or Canterbury-bells (Campanula medium).
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