A Couple Of Mildly Interesting Things About Bluebells

Now it seems that spring has properly sprung and by golly hasn't everything bounced into life? Bluebells carpet the woods and, while I was wandering lonely as cloud through one of the aforementioned, I was delighted to chance upon an English bluebell. 

So what, I hear you say, aren't they one of the iconic sights of woodlands in the spring time? Well yes but they are now becoming a rare and endangered species and being rapidly wiped out by a hybrid species called the spanish bluebell.

To get all botanical for a moment, we have the english bluebell, or Hyacinthoides non-scripta, pictured below, with it's rather melancholic sideways lean. (Sorry about the rubbish picture btw). 

Then there's the Spanish bluebell, or Hyacynthoides hispanica, which is a much more big and blousey sort of flower, standing upright and really showing the 'hyacinth' in Hyacynthoides.

As with most invasive species, this was introduced as a garden plant and is currently rampaging through the countryside, cross breeding with our native bluebells and producing a hybrid called Hyacynthoides x massartiana.

And you may think 'yeah, and?' I mean, like a lot of people, I was not aware of the difference until it was pointed out to me a few years ago.

But the english bluebell, which as the name suggests, only grows in this country, is in fairly major danger of being wiped out. Some people are up in arms about this. And, certainly, the one pictured above is one of the first that I've seen this year, amongst the carpets of Spanish and hybrid bluebells.

But then, sad though this is, and worthy as the preservation of species is, it is fair to assume that a bumblebee does not give too much of a stuff whether the flower they are pollenating is of the H. non-scripta, the H. hispanica or the H. x massartiana variety. The hybridisation is a problem for english bluebells and various conservation groups but otherwise life in the forest carries on as before.

The carpet of bluebells on the forest floor is not going any where soon, so long as we carry on with the important job of retaining and maintaining these woodlands. But saying that, I will definitely miss the pretty little H. non-scripta with their sorrowful lean and their sweet aroma.

More info: http://www.plantlife.org.uk/about_us/faq/bluebells

http://www.woodlands.co.uk/blog/woodland-flowers/blue-flowers/bluebells/