AMERICAN BELLFLOWER 



Campanula ameticana L. 



July - September Tall among the summer trees, the spires of lavender- 

 Woods liliie bellflowers relieve the Illinois woods of a de- 

 gree of weediness and overgrowth into which by 

 midsummer they seem to have plunged. There are nettles and tangles of 

 bittersweet, bushy ]jlants of tick trefoil, tall Joe-pye weeds and many 

 more which transform the once neat spring woods into a jungle by mid- 

 summer. Xow the slim, somewhat angular stems of American bellflower 

 grow tall, yet never seem weedy. They may be two to six feet high, the 

 stems set with alternate, tapered, thin, dark green leaves and milky juice. 

 A tall spike bears blue, flat bells mark(nl with white lines, white center, 

 and out-cur\dng lavender styles and white stamens. 



It is a biennial. The seeds which fall in late siunmer start to grow 

 immediately, so that by frost there are small plants which look a good 

 deal like blue violet plants. Other seeds remain and germinate in the 

 spring. These plants remain low all the following 3'ear, but the next 

 spring they begin to send up their tall stems and leaves which appear 

 entirely different in shape from those of the first year plants. The plant 

 blossoms abundantly and forms mure buds, branches out at the axils of 

 the leaves and often continues to bloom until heavy frost. Then the 

 plant is dead. Its seeds have been scattered and will provide for coming 

 blossoms. 



At least two other Campanulas or bellflowers are native in Illinois. 

 On sandy ledges in northern Illinois, especially at Starved Eock State 

 Park and rarely elsewhere, the slender, wiry stems of the harebell (Cam- 

 panula intercedens) dangle their purplish-blue bolls in the canyon winds. 

 In marshes and wet places grows the marsh bellllower {Campanula apari- 

 noides) . The small bell-shaped flowers are white or very pale blue-white. 



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