Bluebells
The news this month has been all about
Spanish bluebells. Unlike the similar problem with ruddy ducks,
where we're killing off our ducks because the wimpish Spanish
ducks won't fight them off, the macho Spanish bluebells are
hybridising our wonderful native variety, which could eventually
disappear.
The native bluebell, Hyacinthoides
non-scripta, is the deep blue kind which makes our woods
a picture this time of year. They have the 'wow factor' -
I was driving through the Dukeries to Nottingham last week
and suddenly there was a wood, next to the road, quietly blazing
blue. Continental visitors have been known to gasp in wonder
when seeing them for the first time, in massed ranks under
the spring leaves. They have nothing like them - non-scripta
is restricted to the Atlantic west of Europe and Britain may
have half the world's population. The Spanish bluebell, Hyacinthoides
hispanica, is a paler blue with a stiffer flower stem
- the British species droops elegantly and the petals roll
back on themselves, unlike the Spanish ones which are slightly
flared.
To find out how our bluebells are faring,
Plantlife has launched a national survey - Bluebells
for Britain. Anyone who has seen bluebells can
follow a simple web-based questionnaire to find out which
kind of bluebell they have found and then an online form will
tell Plantlife where it is and in what sort of habitat it
is growing. Then the results can be collated - "to map
our native bluebells and get a clearer picture of how healthy
our bluebell population is."
It was ironic that, when Plantlife
wanted to identify a County Flower for each county as their
millennium project, they found that the bluebell was so widely
loved that twenty counties claimed it as theirs. Now the charity
is pushing the bluebell as the national flower of the United
Kingdom. To keep it we need to care for it - let's seek out
our treasures and cherish them.
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