Spreading bellflower Campanula patula

Features

Spreading bellflower is a biennial herbaceous plant growing to a height of 10 to 60 centimetres.

Species	Perrenial
Living space	Meadow
Size	10-60 cm

Description

The stem is branched, erect and wiry and often reddish near the base. In its first year, this plant produces a rosette of short-stalked, slender, spatulate leaves. In the second year it sends up one or more flowering stalks. The leaves on these are alternate, linear and unstalked, the margins having rounded teeth. The inflorescence is a few-flowered terminal raceme. The calyx is fused and has five triangular lobes, sharp tipped and spreading. The corolla is five-lobed, 20 to 25 mm long with five violet-blue (or occasionally white) fused petals. The corolla lobes are longer than they are wide. There are five stamens and a pistil formed from three fused carpels. The fruit is a strongly-veined, conical capsule.