Species: Hybrid Bluebell (H. non-scripta x hispanica) (Hyacinthoides x massartiana)
Family: Asparagus and allies (ASPARAGACEAE sensu lato)
Category: Flowering Plants
Location: NW
A. Flowering Plants
More extensive information on flowering plants can be found in a separate blog post.
B. Asparagus and allies (ASPARAGACEAE sensu lato)
This is a huge, diverse family that includes a number of familiar garden bulb cultivars.
C. Hybrid Bluebell (H. non-scripta x hispanica) (Hyacinthoides x massartiana)
Commonly referred to as the 'Spanish Bluebell', this invasive hybrid is becoming increasingly common, and flowers from April. Bulb extracts from the native bluebell have styptic and diuretic properties, and Tennyson wrote that bluebell juice cured snake bite. The starch in the bulbs has been used to starch ruffs and other clothing. This species is listed on the Sussex Invasive Non-Native Species (INNS) list.
Images
Hybrid Bluebell
Commonly referred to as the 'Spanish Bluebell', this invasive hybrid is becoming increasingly common, and flowers from April. Bulb extracts from the native bluebell have diuretic properties, and Tennyson wrote that bluebell juice cured snake bite.
Hybrid Bluebell
The starch in the bulbs has been used to starch ruffs and other clothing.
Hybrid Bluebell
If you can tell the difference between an English Bluebell and the invasive Spanish Bluebell, bravo. This individual struck some of us as being an English Bluebell, but on balance we have classed it as a Hybrid Bluebell because the flowers are emerging from more than one side of the stem.
Hybrid Bluebell
The dried seed pods that form on Bluebells are brown by July and have an other-worldly appearance.
