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Spreading Bellflower

Spreading Bellflower

Campanula patula

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How common: Very common

Alien species

Spreading Bellflower is a biennial wildflower with thin, branching stems and many purple‑blue, starry bell-shaped flowers. It grows in open, sunny places like meadows, field margins and roadsides. Plants often stand 25–80 cm tall and make loose sprays of flowers in summer.

Did you know?

  • The flowers change posture with the weather: they point upward in sun and droop in cloudy conditions.
  • The dry seed pod opens like a tiny pepper shaker, spilling seeds through small holes near the top.

About the species

Identification

Biennial with milky sap; upright, usually much‑branched stems 25–80 cm. Lower leaves narrow and spoon‑shaped with short stalks; upper leaves few, very narrow, stalkless, edges slightly toothed. Flowers 2–2.5 cm, purple‑blue; the bell is narrow at the base with five long, pointed tips that spread wide, giving a starry look, usually many in an open branched cluster. In sun flowers point up; in cloudy weather they droop. Between the petals are five thin, needle‑like points that stick out. Seed pod is upright and opens by tiny holes near the top. Told from harebell by its wider, starry flowers and more branched sprays; harebell’s are narrower and usually nodding. Flowers in Finland mainly June–July.

Plant group

Herbaceous plants

Habitat

meadow

Flowering

Jun–Jul

About the habitat

Sunny, open places such as meadows, field margins, fallow fields and road verges. Common in southern and central Finland, occasional in the north.

Sources

Photo: George Chernilevsky, CC BY 4.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Campanula patula 2026 G1.jpg

Text: Pinkka: Laaja maatalouslajintuntemus 4 op - Koppisiemeniset, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.39703

Text: Wikipedia (Finnish), CC BY-SA 4.0 https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harakankello

See also