UnidentifiedCampanula in Tashkent Botanical Garden
The species includeannual,biennial andperennial plants, and vary in habit from dwarf arctic and alpine species under 5 cm high, to largetemperategrassland andwoodland species growing to 2 metres (6 ft 7 in) tall.
Theleaves are alternate and often vary in shape on a single plant, with larger, broader leaves at the base of the stem and smaller, narrower leaves higher up; the leaf margin may be either entire or serrated (sometimes both on the same plant). Many species contain whitelatex in the leaves and stems.[6]
The flowers are produced inpanicles (sometimes solitary), and have a five-lobedcorolla, typically large (2–5 cm or more long), mostly blue to purple, sometimes white or pink. Below the corolla, 5 leaf-likesepals form the calyx. Some species have a small additional leaf-like growth termed an "appendage" between each sepal, and the presence or absence, relative size, and attitude of the appendage is often used to distinguish between closely related species.[6]
Well-known species include the northerntemperateCampanula rotundifolia, commonly known as harebell in England and bluebell in Scotland and Ireland (though it is not closely related to the truebluebells), and the southern EuropeanCampanula medium, commonly known as Canterbury bells (a populargarden plant in the United Kingdom). As well as several species occurring naturally in the wild in northern Europe, there are many cultivated garden species.
The speciesCampanula rapunculus, commonly known as rampion bellflower, rampion, or rover bellflower, is abiennial vegetable which was once widely grown in Europe for its spinach-like leaves and radish-like roots.[10] In many English translations of theBrothers Grimm's taleRapunzel, rampion is the vegetable that is stolen from the witch. (Rapunzel is a completely different plant,Valerianella locusta.)
The classification of some Campanulaceae genera as either part ofCampanula or separate genera can vary by system, includingAzorina,Campanulastrum,Canarina,Edraianthus,Musschia,Ostrowskia, andPlatycodon. Some genera previously not segregated fromCampanula currently are segregated in some systems, includingAnnaea,Gadellia, andTheodorovia.Hemisphaera was formerlyCampanula, subsect.Scapiflorae, andNeocodon wasCampanula sect.Rapunculus.[13]
^"Genus:Campanula L."Germplasm Resources Information Network. United States Department of Agriculture. 2004-01-29. Archived fromthe original on 2012-10-06. Retrieved2011-02-03.
^lectorype designated by Britton & Brown, Illustrated Flora of the Northern United States (ed. 2) 3: 294 (1913)
^"Home".Bellflower Nursery. Archived fromthe original on 22 September 2022. Retrieved13 April 2018.
^Tatyana V. Shulkina, John F. Gaskin and W. M. M. Eddie, "Morphological Studies toward an Improved Classification of Campanulaceae s. str.,"Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 90.4 (2003), pp. 578, 583.
^Structure and biosynthesis of anthocyanins in flowers of Campanula. Kirsten Brandt, Tadao Kondo, Hideki Aoki and Toshio Goto, Phytochemistry, 29 April 1993, Volume 33, Issue 1, Pages 209–212,doi:10.1016/0031-9422(93)85424-P
^Łańcucka-Środoniowa M.: Macroscopic plant remains from the freshwater Miocene of the Nowy Sącz Basin (West Carpathians, Poland) [Szczątki makroskopowe roślin z miocenu słodkowodnego Kotliny Sądeckiej (Karpaty Zachodnie, Polska)]. Acta Palaeobotanica 1979 20 (1): 3–117.
Fitter, R; A Fitter (1974).The Wild Flowers of Britain and Northern Europe. Collins.
