CAMPANULACEAE 



BLUEBELL FAMILY 



TALL BELLFLOWER 



Campanula americana L. 



Among the plants of this economically unimportant family 

 which are cultivated for their beautiful flowers are the Canter- 

 bury Bells, the Bluebells and the Bellflowers. The Tall Bellflower 

 is found in moist woods and thickets 

 from New Brunswick to Ontario and 

 South Dakota, south to Florida and 

 Kansas. 



It is an annual or biennial herb 

 with a rather slender and usually un- 

 branched stem that grows 2-6 feet 

 high. The leaves, 2-^ inches long, are 

 thin and all but the uppermost are 

 petioled. 



The light blue flowers are pro- 

 duced from July to September in a 

 terminal spike which may become 

 1-2 feet long. The tubular calyx is 

 grown fast to the ovary and is 5-lobed 

 above. The wheel-shaped corolla is 

 deeply 5-cleft and the 5 stamens are 

 attached at its 

 base. The style is 

 curved upward and 

 the stigma is 3- 

 lobed. The fruit is 

 a capsule which 

 opens near the top 

 by 3 small holes. 



In the extreme northern part of 

 the state the Harebell or Bluebell, 

 Campanula rotundijolia L., is found. 

 This is a perennial 6-36 inches high. 

 The basal leaves are round-heart shaped, 

 slender petioled, toothed or entire and 

 often absent at flowering time, but the stem leaves are narrow, 

 mostly entire and sessile. The beautiful blue flowers are distinctly 

 bell shaped, nearly i inch long, and drooping or spreading on slender 

 pedicels in a racemose inflorescence. The spreading awl-shaped calyx 

 lobes are much longer than the short-top-shaped tube. The pendu- 

 lous ribbed capsule opens by pores at the base. 



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