TRAILING BELLFLOWER

Campanula poscharskyana

Bellflower Family [Campanulaceae]

month8may month8jun month8june month8jul month8july month8aug month8sep month8sept

status
statusZneophyte
flower
flower8azure
inner
inner8white
inner
inner8red
morph
morph8actino
petals
petalsZ5
stem
stem8round
stem
stem8milkysap stem8milkylatex

30th June 2004, Rochdale Canal, Todmorden, Lancs/Yorks. Photo: © RWD
Grows on walls and rocky banks; here flowing over a wall and down the other side.


30th June 2004, Rochdale Canal, Todmorden, Lancs/Yorks Photo: © RWD
Flowers are a slatey-blue, and more on the mauvish-side of azure (much paler than the violet-blue of the similar Adria Bellflower). The stems are between 30 and 50cm long as they are for Adria Bellflower too.


30th June 2004, Rochdale Canal, Todmorden, Lancs/Yorks Photo: © RWD
The petals are lobed between 1/2 and 3/4 ths of the way to the base (unlike those of the similar Adria Bellflower where they are only lobed between 1/4 to 2/5 ths of the way to the base)


22nd Aug 2007, North Wales Path, Llanfairfechan. Photo: © RWD
The leaves are cardioid (heart-shaped) and with or without somewhat irregular triangular teeth.


2nd June 2006, A limestone wall in Arnside, Lancashire. Photo: © RWD


2nd June 2006, A limestone wall in Arnside, Lancashire. Photo: © RWD
The stems are said to be grey-hairy, but most of these specimens are neither, being reddish and only slightly hairy.


2nd June 2006, A limestone wall in Arnside, Lancashire. Photo: © RWD


2nd June 2006, A limestone wall in Arnside, Lancashire. Photo: © RWD


2nd June 2006, A limestone wall in Arnside, Lancashire. Photo: © RWD


2nd June 2006, A limestone wall in Arnside, Lancashire. Photo: © RWD
Some of the flowers on these specimens have bright-red oval things on the petals, on the rock, but mainly on the intact stigmas. Perhaps they are insects? On the image above this one too.


22nd Aug 2007, North Wales Path, Llanfairfechan. Photo: © RWD
The calyx lobes [2 can be espied peeking out from under the topmost flower] are lanceolate to narrowly ovate (just lanceolate on the similar Adria Bellflower).


22nd Aug 2007, North Wales Path, Llanfairfechan. Photo: © RWD
The style on this specimen is split into 3 deeper-blue stigmas.


22nd Aug 2007, North Wales Path, Llanfairfechan. Photo: © RWD
The upper flower has a style which splits into 4 stigma at the top. The lower flower has a club-shaped stigma, presumably it is this shape before it splits into 3 or 4). The stamens are white and wiry thin. The ovary in the centre is white with 5 radiating rubs.


Not to be semantically confused with : Trailing Snapdragon (Asarina procumbens), Trailing St John's Wort (Hypericum humifusum), Trailing Azalea (Kalmia procumbens), Trailing Ice Plant (Lampranthus spectabilis) or Trailing Tormentil (Potentilla anglica [plants with similar names]

Easily mis-identified as : Adria Bellflower (Campanula portenschlagiana), in fact many people do according to Prof. Clive Stace (and he's not wrong). But sometimes, it might just be that botanists get the two specific epithets mixed up, for they are very similar, wouldn't the reader agree: (C. portenschlagiana for Adria Bellflower, C. poscharskyana for Trailing Bellflower). For the botanical differences between the two see the captions beneath the photos.

Some perceived similarities to : Spreading Bellflower (Campanula patula) but that does not spread along the ground as the name might imply (like the other two which spread along walls) but is instead bolt upright. Nor does it 'spread' by underground rhizomes. (The 'spreading' bit of the common name refers instead to the petals which spread out - er-um, just like those of Adria Bellflower). Spreading Bellflower is a rare [RR] whereas the other two are ubiquitous.

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!


  Campanula poscharskyana  ⇐ Global Aspect ⇒ Campanulaceae  

Distribution
 family8Bellflower family8Campanulaceae
 BSBI maps
genus8Campanula
Campanula
(Bellflowers)

TRAILING BELLFLOWER

Campanula poscharskyana

Bellflower Family [Campanulaceae]