A native
woodland flower is to be seen from April
each year . These bulbous perennials have fleshy, glossy, linear
leaves which are keeled and come from the root. At the
tip of the leaves is a little hood. The long racemes or spikes of
four-to-fifteen, drooping, tubular, purplish-blue flowers are
one-sided, the leafless stems curving over gracefully. Bluebells bloom
from April to May. The fruits are egg-shaped capsules with black
seeds. This is a native plant belonging to the family
Asparagaceae. Each native bluebell flower (14-20mm long) has cream
anthers and six backward curving lobes. The latter point makes it easily
distinguished from its competitor, the hybrid, - Hyacinthoides x massartiana
- between the introduced Spanish Bluebell (Hyacinthoides hispanica)
and our native Bluebell. This hybrid has
non-curving lobes and also differs in that its flowers are not in a
one-sided spike. The anthers in the hybrid are blue.
Bluebells bloom from April to May. The fruits are egg-shaped
capsules with black seeds. This is a native plant
belonging to the family Asparagaceae.
