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''Campanula rapunculoides'', known by the common names creeping bellflower, rampion bellflower, rover bellflower, garden bluebell, creeping bluebell, purple bell, garden harebell, and creeping campanula, is a perennial herbaceous plant of the genus ''Campanula'', belonging to the family Campanulaceae. Native to central and southern Europe and west Asia,Handbook of the British flora: a description of ..., Volume 2; Volume 1865 By George Bentham
/ref>. in some parts of North America it is an extremely invasive species.
''Campanula rapunculoides'' reaches on average of height, with a maximum of . The stem is simple, erect and lightly pubescent (botany), pubescent and the leaves are usually shortly hairy. The basal leaves are triangular, narrow, with a heart-shaped or rounded base, jagged edges and are up to long. The upper stem leaves are sessility (botany), sessile, lanceolate, and shortly stalked.
The inflorescence consists of nodding spikelike racemes with numerous drooping flowers. The flowers are bright blue-violet (rarely white), long, with short Petiole (botany), petioles standing to one side in the axils of the bracts. The bracts are quite different and smaller than the leaves. The sepals are lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, entire, wide at the base up to . The Corolla (botany), corolla is bell-shaped, with five deep lobes slightly Glossary of leaf morphology#Edge, ciliate. The flowering period extends from June through September. The flowers are pollinated by insects (bees, flies, butterflies, etc.) (entomophily). The fruit is a capsule with five pores near the base, where the seeds are spread.
The plant seeds abundantly (each plant can produce 15,000 seeds), and while some roots come out when it is pulled, the horizontal stolons grow vertical storage tubers, which may not be anywhere near the surface portions of the plant. These storage tubers can regrow stolons, which in turn send up shoots at some distance from the storage tubers.
This plant has its overwintering buds situated just below the soil surface (Raunkiær plant life-form#Hemicryptophytes, hemicryptophyte). It spreads by underground rhizomes and produces deep, taproot-shaped tubers. Both are white and fleshy. Because any piece of the roots can sprout into a new plant, it is extremely hard to eradicate.
File:Campanula rapunculoides Sturm60.jpg, Illustration of ''Campanula rapunculoides'' (right) from Deutschlands Flora in Abbildunge (1796)
File:Campanula rapunculoides HRM2.JPG, Plant of ''Campanula rapunculoides''
File:Campanulaceae - Campanula rapunculoides-5.JPG, Close-up on flowers of ''Campanula rapunculoides''
File:Campanulaceae - Campanula rapunculoides-1.JPG, Flowers of ''Campanula rapunculoides''
File:Campanulaceae - Campanula rapunculoides.JPG, Leaf of ''Campanula rapunculoides''
BiolibPlants.usda
Ontario Ministry of Agriculture
Kew Plant ListIPNI Listing
{{Taxonbar, from=Q341547 Campanula, rapunculoides Plants described in 1753 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus Flora of Michigan Flora of New York (state) Flora without expected TNC conservation status Edible plants Flora of Europe Flora invasive in North America
/ref>. in some parts of North America it is an extremely invasive species.
Etymology
The genus Latin name ("campanula"), meaning 'small bell', refers to the bell-shape of the flower, while the specific name ("rapunculoides") refers to the similarity to ''Campanula rapunculus''.Description
''Campanula rapunculoides'' reaches on average of height, with a maximum of . The stem is simple, erect and lightly pubescent (botany), pubescent and the leaves are usually shortly hairy. The basal leaves are triangular, narrow, with a heart-shaped or rounded base, jagged edges and are up to long. The upper stem leaves are sessility (botany), sessile, lanceolate, and shortly stalked.
The inflorescence consists of nodding spikelike racemes with numerous drooping flowers. The flowers are bright blue-violet (rarely white), long, with short Petiole (botany), petioles standing to one side in the axils of the bracts. The bracts are quite different and smaller than the leaves. The sepals are lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, entire, wide at the base up to . The Corolla (botany), corolla is bell-shaped, with five deep lobes slightly Glossary of leaf morphology#Edge, ciliate. The flowering period extends from June through September. The flowers are pollinated by insects (bees, flies, butterflies, etc.) (entomophily). The fruit is a capsule with five pores near the base, where the seeds are spread.
The plant seeds abundantly (each plant can produce 15,000 seeds), and while some roots come out when it is pulled, the horizontal stolons grow vertical storage tubers, which may not be anywhere near the surface portions of the plant. These storage tubers can regrow stolons, which in turn send up shoots at some distance from the storage tubers.
This plant has its overwintering buds situated just below the soil surface (Raunkiær plant life-form#Hemicryptophytes, hemicryptophyte). It spreads by underground rhizomes and produces deep, taproot-shaped tubers. Both are white and fleshy. Because any piece of the roots can sprout into a new plant, it is extremely hard to eradicate.
Distribution
This plant is native to Europe and western Siberia, where it grows in semi-shaded areas like open woods, the edges of denser forests, and meadowland. It has been introduced to North America, where it has become an extremely invasive weed; it chokes out other plants, and eliminating it is nearly impossible due to its multiple propagation mechanisms. Like many related ''Campanula'' species and more distant relatives, it is edible and was historically grown for food. The roots, shoots, and leaves are all edible. The roots can be eaten raw or cooked, and the upper parts are mild-flavoured; indeed rather bland, commonplace, and somewhat chewy-leaved; the basal leaves are often cooked as a pot herb, where they blend in with other leaves unnoticably.Habitat
It grows on grassy places, dry hills, meadows, in deciduous and pine forests, woods, fields and roadsides, along railway lines and hedgerows, preferably in partial shade, in dry to moist sites and on clay soils, relatively rich in nitrogen, at an altitude of above sea level. It also occurs in cultivated fields as a weed.Gallery
Invasive species
''Campanula rapunculoides'' is native to parts of Eurasia, but is a widespread European import to North America, and it is invasive. It is extremely difficult to remove. Mechanical removal, burning, and chemicals have varying success rates, but there is no sure method of removing the plants first try.References
* Pignatti S. - Flora d'Italia – Edagricole – 1982, Vol. II, pag. 695External links
Biolib
Ontario Ministry of Agriculture
{{Taxonbar, from=Q341547 Campanula, rapunculoides Plants described in 1753 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus Flora of Michigan Flora of New York (state) Flora without expected TNC conservation status Edible plants Flora of Europe Flora invasive in North America