Campanula rotundifolia

Campanula rotundifolia is a slender, prostrate to erect herbaceous perennial, spreading by seed and rhizomes. The basal leaves are long-stalked, rounded to heart-shaped, usually slightly toothed, with prominent hydathodes, and often wither early. Leaves on the flowering stems are long and narrow and the upper ones are unstemmed. The inflorescence is a panicle or raceme, with 1 to many flowers borne on very slender pedicels. The flowers usually have five (occasionally 4, 6 or 7) pale to mid violet-blue petals fused together into a bell shape, about {{convert|12|-|30|mm|in|frac=32|abbr=on}} long and five long, pointed green sepals behind them. Plants with pale pink or white flowers may also occur. The petal lobes are triangular and curve outwards. The seeds are produced in a capsule about {{convert|3|–|4|mm|in|frac=32|abbr=on}} diameter and are released by pores at the base of the capsule. Seedlings are minute, but established plants can compete with tall grass. As with many other Campanula species, all parts of the plant exude white latex when injured or broken.

The flowering period is long and varies by location. In the British Isles, harebell flowers from July to November.{{cite book |last1=Blamey |first1=M. |last2=Fitter |first2=R. |last3=Fitter |first3=A|year=2003 |title=Wild flowers of Britain and Ireland: The Complete Guide to the British and Irish Flora.|publisher=A & C Black|location=London |isbn=978-1408179505 }}{{rp|250}}{{cite journal |last1=Jeffree |first1=E.P. |year=1960 |title=Some long-term means from the Phenological reports (1891–1948) of the Royal Meteorological Society |journal=Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society |volume=86 |issue=367 |pages=95–103 |doi=10.1002/qj.49708636710|bibcode=1960QJRMS..86...95J }} In Missouri, it flowers from May to August;{{Missouri Plants |color=blue |leaf=alternate |genus=Campanula |species=rotundifolia}} in Minnesota, from June to October.{{Minnesota Wildflowers|Campanula rotundifolia (Harebell)|flower|harebell |access-date=19 June 2018}} The flowers are pollinated by bees, but can self-pollinate.

Campanula rotundifolia was first formally described in 1753 by Carl Linnaeus. {{As of|2023}}, no varieties or subspecies of Campanula rotundifolia are accepted in Plants of the World Online (POWO).{{Cite POWO |last1=POWO |author-link1=Plants of the World Online |year=2023 |id=30036649-2 |title=Campanula rotundifolia L. |access-date=1 May 2023 }} Several species have been previously described as varieties or subspecies of C. rotundifolia:

• Campanula alaskana (Campanula rotundifolia var. alaskana or hirsuta){{Cite POWO |last1=POWO |author-link1=Plants of the World Online |year=2023 |id=1001790-2 |title=Campanula alaskana (A.Gray) W.Wight ex J.P.Anderson |access-date=1 May 2023 }} - Alaskan bellflower
• Campanula giesekiana (C. r. var. dubia or var. groenlandica){{Cite POWO |last1=POWO |author-link1=Plants of the World Online |year=2023 |id=43943-2 |title=Campanula giesekiana Vest ex Schult. |access-date=1 May 2023 }} - Giesecke's harebell
• Campanula intercedens (C. r. var. dentata or intercedens){{Cite POWO |last1=POWO |author-link1=Plants of the World Online |year=2023 |id=43948-2 |title=Campanula intercedens Witasek |access-date=1 May 2023 }} - intermediate bellflower
• Campanula kladniana (C. r. subsp. kladniana){{Cite POWO |last1=POWO |author-link1=Plants of the World Online |year=2023 |id=140522-1 |title=Campanula kladniana (Schur) Witasek |access-date=1 May 2023 }}
• Campanula macrorhiza (C. r. var. aitanica or alcoiana){{Cite POWO |last1=POWO |author-link1=Plants of the World Online |year=2023 |id=140645-1 |title=Campanula macrorhiza J.Gay ex A.DC. |access-date=1 May 2023 }}
• Campanula moravica (C. r. subsp. moravica){{Cite POWO |last1=POWO |author-link1=Plants of the World Online |year=2023 |id=140707-1 |title=Campanula moravica (Spitzn.) Kovanda |access-date=1 May 2023 }}
• Campanula nejceffii (C. r. var. bulgarica){{Cite POWO |last1=POWO |author-link1=Plants of the World Online |year=2023 |id=77177736-1 |title=Campanula nejceffii Marinov & Stoyanov |access-date=1 May 2023 }}
• Campanula petiolata (C. r. var. petiolata){{Cite POWO |last1=POWO |author-link1=Plants of the World Online |year=2023 |id=140830-1 |title=Campanula petiolata A.DC. |access-date=1 May 2023 }} - western harebell
• Campanula ruscinonensis (C. r. var. ruscinonensis){{Cite POWO |last1=POWO |author-link1=Plants of the World Online |year=2023 |id=141026-1 |title=Campanula ruscinonensis Timb.-Lagr. |access-date=1 May 2023 }}
• Campanula willkommii (C. r. subsp. willkommii){{Cite POWO |last1=POWO |author-link1=Plants of the World Online |year=2023 |id=141331-1 |title=Campanula willkommii Witasek |access-date=1 May 2023 }}

Although POWO and World Flora Online (WFO){{cite web |last1=WFO |title=Campanula L. |url=http://worldfloraonline.org/taxon/wfo-4000006381 |website=World Flora Online |access-date=17 May 2023 |date=2023}} accept these as separate species, most English language sources do not. For example both the Database of Vascular Plants of Canada (VASCAN) and the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service PLANTS database (PLANTS) do not accept any of these species as valid or even regard them as valid subspecies. This is also the case with authoritative floras such as Flora of Colorado.{{cite book |last1=Ackerfield |first1=Jennifer |title=Flora of Colorado |date=2015 |publisher=BRIT press |location=Fort Worth |isbn=978-1-889878-45-4 |pages=261–262}}

While it is now commonly known as harebell or bluebell, it was historically known by several other names including blawort, hair-bell, lady's thimble, witch's bells, and witch's thimbles.{{citation |author=Miller, W. |year=1884 |title=A Dictionary of English Names of Plants: Applied in England and Among English-speaking People to Cultivated and Wild Plants, Trees, and Shrubs |publisher=J. Murray |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NkASAAAAYAAJ}}{{citation |author=Quattrocchi, U. |year=2012 |title=CRC World Dictionary of Medicinal and Poisonous Plants: Common Names, Scientific Names, Eponyms, Synonyms, and Etymology (5 Volume Set) |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=9781420080445 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YC_lAgAAQBAJ}}

Elsewhere in Britain, "bluebell" refers to Hyacinthoides non-scripta, and in North America, "bluebell" typically refers to species in the genus Mertensia, such as Mertensia virginica (Virginia bluebells).

{{Gallery |mode=packed

|Campanula rotundifolia 21739.JPG|Petal lobes curve outwards

|Campanula rotundifolia Aachen.jpg|Growing wild on a soil covered concrete slab

|WP 20140712 22 27 19 Raw.jpg|White variant

|Blaaklokke.JPG|In southern Norway

}}

Campanula rotundifolia occurs from Spitzbergen,{{cite journal|last1=Stevens|first1=C.J.|last2=Wilson |first2=J|last3=McAllister|first3=H.A.|year=2012|title=Biological Flora of the British Isles: Campanula rotundifolia|journal=Journal of Ecology|volume=100|issue=3|pages=821–839|doi=10.1111/j.1365-2745.2012.01963.x|doi-access=free}} extending in mainland Europe from northernmost Scandinavia to the Pyrenees and the French Mediterranean coast.{{cite web |title=Den Virtuella Floran, Campanula rotundifolia L. |first=Arne |last=Anderberg |publisher=Naturhistoriska riksmuseet, Stockholm, Sweden |url=http://linnaeus.nrm.se/flora/di/campanula/campa/camprotv.jpg }} It also occurs on the southern coasts of Greenland, on Iceland and on southern Novaya Zemlya.

Some sources and authorities like the VASCAN and PLANTS do not currently separate out different species for North America.{{cite web |last1=Acadia University, Université de Montréal Biodiversity Centre, University of Toronto Mississauga, University of British Columbia |title=Campanula rotundifolia Linnaeus - Database of Vascular Plants of Canada (VASCAN) |url=https://data.canadensys.net/vascan/taxon/4171 |website=Database of Vascular Plants of Canada (VASCAN) |access-date=1 May 2023 |date=18 April 2023}}{{cite web |vauthors=Brouillet L, Desmet P, Coursol F, Meades SJ, Favreau M, Anions M, Bélisle P, Gendreau C, Shorthouse D, etal |date=2010 |title=Campanula Linnaeus |url=https://data.canadensys.net/vascan/taxon/942 |website=Database of Vascular Plants of Canada (VASCAN) |access-date=16 May 2020}}{{PLANTS |id=CARO2 |taxon=Campanula rotundifolia L. |accessdate=1 May 2020}} If using these sources it is widely distributed through North America including all of Canada and most of the United States.

It occurs as tetraploid or hexaploid populations in Britain and Ireland, but diploids occur widely in continental Europe.McAllister, H.A. 1973. The experimental taxonomy of Campanula rotundifolia L. Ph.D. Thesis, University of Glasgow In Britain, the tetraploid population has an easterly distribution and the hexaploid population a westerly distribution, and very little mixing occurs at the range boundaries.

Harebells grow in dry, nutrient-poor grasslands and heaths. The plant often successfully colonises cracks in walls or cliff faces and stable dunes.

C. rotundifolia is more inclined to occupy climates that have an average temperature below 0 °C in the cold months and above 10 °C in the summer.Shetler SG. 1982 Variation and evolution of Nearctic harebells (Campanula subsect. Heterophylla). Phan. Monogr. 11. 1-516 (1982)- En Abstr. in Excerpta Bot., A, 39(1): p.20 (1982).

In Iceland, research on Campanula rotundifolia has revealed that it is a host of at least three species of pathogenic fungi, Coleosporium tussilaginis, Puccinia campanulae and Sporonema campanulae (and the teleomorph Leptotrochila radians).Helgi Hallgrímsson & Guðríður Gyða Eyjólfsdóttir (2004). [https://rafhladan.is/bitstream/handle/10802/4090/Fjolrit_45.pdf?sequence=1 Íslenskt sveppatal I - smásveppir [Checklist of Icelandic Fungi I - Microfungi]. Fjölrit Náttúrufræðistofnunar. Náttúrufræðistofnun Íslands [Icelandic Institute of Natural History]. ISSN 1027-832X

The harebell is dedicated to Saint Dominic.{{citation needed|date=May 2020}}

In 2002 Plantlife named it the county flower of Yorkshire in the United Kingdom.Plantlife website [http://www.plantlife.org.uk/wild_plants/county_flowers/ County Flowers page] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150430170312/http://www.plantlife.org.uk/wild_plants/county_flowers/ |date=2015-04-30 }}

William Shakespeare makes a reference to 'the azured hare-bell' in Cymbeline:

:With fairest flowers,

:Whilst summer lasts, and I live here, Fidele,

:I'll sweeten thy sad grave: thou shalt not lack

:The flower that's like thy face, pale primrose, nor

:The azured hare-bell, like thy veins; no, nor

:The leaf of eglantine, whom not to slander,

:Out-sweeten'd not thy breath.William Shakespeare, Cymbeline (iv. 2), Arviragus speechIn Jessica Kerr's and Opelia Dowden's Shakespeare's Flowers published in 1970 they infer that Shakespeare was actually making reference to Hyacinthoides non-scripta.

Christina Rossetti (1830–1894) wrote a poem entitled 'Hope is Like A Harebell':

:Hope is like a harebell, trembling from its birth,

:Love is like a rose, the joy of all the earth,

:Faith is like a lily, lifted high and white,

:Love is like a lovely rose, the world's delight.

:Harebells and sweet lilies show a thornless growth,

:But the rose with all its thorns excels them both.Christina G Rossetti, A Nursery Rhyme Book, Macmillan and Co., London, New York (1893)

Emily Dickinson uses the harebell as an analogy for desire that grows cold once that which is cherished is attained:

:Did the Harebell loose her girdle

:To the lover Bee

:Would the Bee the Harebell hallow

:Much as formerly?

:Did the paradise – persuaded

:Yield her moat of pearl

:Would the Eden be an Eden

:Or the Earl – an EarlEmily Dickinson, Did the Harebell loose her girdle, Volume: Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson, first published in 1955

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rotundifolia

Category:Flora of Europe

Category:Plants described in 1753

Category:Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus