Bluebell, Hyacinthoides non-scripta

On Thursday we visited a beautiful area of privately owned woodland near Norwich. We had timed our visit perfectly, for Bluebells (Hyacinthoides non-scripta) were in full flower.

Bluebells are one of the highlights of spring in the British Isles, flowering in late April and early May in southern England, where they carpet the ground in many deciduous woods. The flowers are sweetly scented. Normally blue, they can sometimes be white or pink [note 1]. They are often, but not exclusively, associated with ancient woodlands.

Bluebells also grow in hedgerows and on shady banks and cliffs. Especially in the north and west, they can be found in grassland, with or without Bracken (Pteridium aquilinum), where they will flower from May until early June. One of the best displays of Bluebells I have seen was on Lunga, the largest of the Treshnish Islands in mid May 2001. We had taken a day boat from Mull to see Fingal’s Cave on the island of Staffa and nesting Puffins on Ulva. Both were spectacular but the Bluebells were a lovely bonus.

Whether under deciduous trees or Bracken, Bluebells can grow their leaves early in the spring and flower before light is excluded from above in early summer. Bluebell leaves die down by mid-summer, leaving the drying seedheads. By late summer Bluebells are hard to find. The once prolific flowers are just a ripple in the memory, a mirage of blue sea. The plant is then dormant, resting as a bulb.

Hyacinthoides non-scripta is a perennial member of the Asparagaceae, a family with around 2900 species worldwide, including Asparagus (a genus which contains another highlight of spring, this time of the culinary kind), Lily-of-the-Valley (Convallaria majalis), Hosta, Yucca, Agave and Scilla.

Hyacinthoides non-scripta grows wild in the British Isles (UK and Ireland), Belgium, The Netherlands, France, Portugal and Spain, and has become naturalised elsewhere in Europe. It has also been introduced into various parts of the United States (Washington, Oregon, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Indiana and North and South Virginia) and Canada (Ontario and British Columbia).

The British Isles are its stronghold, with around half of the worldwide population. Apart from The Fens, Orkney and Shetland, most of Lewis and Harris and some more mountainous parts of the Scottish Highlands, it can be found in ten kilometre squares in most of the British Isles.

Reassuringly, the Online Atlas of the British and Irish Flora says that “The overall distribution of H. non-scripta is stable and it remains abundant in suitable habitats throughout its range.” Nonetheless, there are a few threats to our native Bluebell.

Bluebell leaves in Earlham Cemetery, Norwich, chewed by Muntjac deer.

Woods with Snowdrops or Bluebells are sometimes visited by bulb thieves, who can rip out swathes of bulbs from woodlands. Norfolk is a particular popular spot for this crime. A 2003 article in The Independent gives some examples. Three men were arrested with 18 crates of snowdrop bulbs in 1999 and one thief was jailed for four months after helping to steal 1,300 Bluebell bulbs from a wood in Norfolk. More recently, in 2017, the Eastern Daily Press reported the theft of  Snowdrop and Bluebell bulbs from South Pickenham and Narborough in West Norfolk. At South Pickenham the thieves may have been disturbed in the middle of the theft, as they left about £3000 worth of Snowdrop bulbs behind on the site.

The charity Plantlife is particularly concerned about plant theft, and has started an inventory of these crimes. In the UK, Hyacinthoides non-scripta is protected by the Wildlife and Countryside Act (1981) which prohibits landowners from removing bluebells from their land for sale, and prohibits anyone from digging up bulbs from the countryside. Trade in wild bluebell bulbs or seeds has been an offence since 1998 (unless a special licence has been issued by the UK Government or devolved administrations permitting sustainable collection of seeds).

Bluebells not just popular with humans. Muntjac deer, a species introduced from China and now spreading through much of England and Wales, are very partial to Bluebell leaves. They will nibble the tops but sometimes leaves can be eaten right down to the ground. Damage can also be caused by trampling, both by deer hooves and human feet. Human pressure is usually worse. In popular green spaces narrow paths can widen to become wider paths or tracks, and any Bluebells by the side of the path become trampled and eventually destroyed.

You are likely to encounter two more types of Bluebell in the British Isles.

Hyacinthoides non-scripta has a close relative, the Spanish Bluebell, Hyacinthoides hispanica, which is a native of western Spain and Portugal and has been grown in Britain as an ornamental plant since the late 1600s. It has paler and larger blue flowers, which are less pendulous and not all drooping to one side as on Hyacinthoides non-scripta. The flower stem is more erect, the leaves are broader and the anthers are blue, rather than creamy-white. The flowers have little or no scent. Plantlife has a comparison of the two species on its website.

Hyacinthoides hispanica hybridises with H. non-scripta, to produce the Hybrid Bluebell, Hyacinthoides x massartiana. It is thought to be the most commonly cultivated form in gardens and was first recorded in the wild in 1963. The Online Atlas describes it as a lowland plant and gives its habitat as “woodlands, hedgerows, churchyards and shady roadsides, rough ground and waste places, probably most frequent in the entrances to amenity woods”. Earlham Cemetery in Norwich has a few H. non-scripta, but the majority of its Bluebells are H. x massartiana and H. hispanica. It can be difficult to tell hybrids apart from the two parents. There is concern that Hyacinthoides non-scripta may be displaced by the Hybrid Bluebell and scientists at the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh have been researching this topic.

If you want to grow Bluebells in your garden, it is best to choose Hyacinthoides non-scripta to avoid the risk of accidental escape and hybridisation. Choose a reputable company to ensure your plants have not been taken from the wild. The Woodland Trust, Good Housekeeping, and Telegraph websites offer sound advice, including the best growing conditions (under deciduous trees). You can raise plants from seed too, following propagation instructions on the Plants for a Future website.

The Bluebell has a number of alternative common names and these include: English Bluebell; British Bluebell; Granfer Griggles; Cra’tae (Crow’s Toes), Wild Hyacinth, Wood Bell, Fairy Flower, Bell Bottle, Lady’s Nightcap and Witches’ Thimbles. In Scotland, the Harebell, Campanula rotundifolia, is sometimes known as the Bluebell.

One reason for using scientific, rather than common names is that they are more stable but if you want to use an example as evidence, don’t choose the Bluebell. When I first studied Botany the accepted name was Endymion non-scriptus, but that soon changed to Scilla non-scripta. Hyacinthoides non-scripta was adopted in 1991. The “non-script” part of the scientific name means “unlettered”. This is to distinguish the Bluebell from the mythical Hyacinth of classical literature, which was marked by Apollo with the letters “AIAI”, meaning “alas”, when it sprang from the blood of the dying prince Hyacinthus (Richard Mabey, “Flora Britannica”, 1996).

Bluebells are popular with woodland insects as they provide an early source of nectar. They are also popular with humans. When Plantlife asked the public to vote for the “Nation’s Favourite Wildflower”, the Bluebell won in England and the UK overall, though the Primrose (Primula vulgaris) won in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Bluebells are poisonous, so should not be eaten. They contain glycosides called scillarens which are similar in action to the glycosides found in foxgloves.

Sap in Bluebell stems and bulbs was sometimes used as a glue, which was used in book-binding or to stick flights to arrow shafts. If used to stick paper together, the glued join is stronger than the surrounding paper. The starch from the bulbs was also used for laundering, although it was very harsh on the skin.

Medicinally, Bluebell bulbs reportedly have diuretic and styptic properties and were used in traditional medicine to treat leucorrhoea (discharge of mucus from the vagina). Bluebells contain at least fifteen biologically active compounds [note 3] and there have even been suggestions that the plant might be used in treating HIV and cancer.

If you live in Norfolk, there are several well known sites for Bluebells which have public access. These include the Norfolk Wildlife Trust reserves at Foxley and Wayland Woods, the grounds of The National Trust’s Blickling Hall and Sheringham Park. The Woodland Trust has a list of ten good woods for Bluebells, scattered throughout the UK.

If you go to a Bluebell wood with a camera, the National Trust has some tips for taking good photographs. There are some lovely photographs of Bluebells on the web, including some by Hollie Crawshaw, “Beautiful Bluebells“. Steve Docwra’s pictures of Norfolk Woodlands are some of the finest I have found.

Don’t just sit there – get out into a wood near you and marvel at Bluebells.

Notes

1. When I was doing background reading for my PhD in the 1980s, I read several papers by R.G. Stickland and B.J. Harrison about genetic control of flower colour in Hyacinthoides non-scripta. Based at the John Innes Institute in Norwich, they visited some of the Bluebell woods between Norwich and Watton to look at the occurrence of Bluebells with blue, pink and white flowers. I’ve found the abstract of one of the papers online.
2. Ireland’s National Biodiversity Data Centre has produced an online document entitled “Risk Assessment of Hyacinthoides hispanica, including H. non-scripta x H. hispanica” (Erin O’Rourke and Liam Lysaght, 2014), which contains a lot of useful information. The document gives descriptions of the three varieties of Bluebell from Clive Stace’s “New Flora of the British Isles” (1997, Cambridge University Press):
   

• The native bluebell, H. non-scripta, “stems to 50cm; leaves up to 20mm wide;racemes pendent at apex, 1-sided, with pendent strongly sweetly scented flowers; – tepals 14-20mm, forming +/- parallel-sided tubular perianth, strongly recurved at apex, outer 3 stamens fused to perianth for >3/4 their length”.
• The Spanish bluebell, H. hispanica “stems to 40cm; leaves up to 35mm wide; racemes erect, not 1-sided, with erect to patent, faintly scented flowers; tepals 12- 18mm, forming bell-shaped perianth, not recurved at apex; outer 3 stamens fused to perianth for <3/4 their length”.
• The hybrid bluebell, H. non-scripta x H. hispanica, is intermediate in all characters and fertile, forming a complete spectrum between the parents.

3. The PhD Thesis “The Chemistry and Ecology of British Bluebells (Hyacinthoides non-scripta)” gives a good summary of the chemicals found in Bluebells. Dotsha Raheem, Bangor University, 2015.

Bluebells in Bradfield Woods, Suffolk.