Campanula rapunculoides L.
creeping bellflower
Hairy or hispid rhizomatous perennial, with erect stems to 1 m tall and creeping, slender rhizomes. Basal and lowermost cauline lvs with long slender petioles > lamina; lamina 6-10 × 3-6 cm, ovate, hairy, especially on veins below, crenate-serrate; base subcordate or cordate; apex short-acuminate or acute; most cauline lvs sessile or shortly petiolate, 5-15 × 0.7-5 cm, narrow-ovate or lanceolate; base cuneate to attenuate, otherwise similar to basal lvs. Lower bracts similar to upper cauline lvs; upper bracts linear to subulate, mostly > pedicels. Racemes long, terminal, puberulent; fls secund, ± nodding; pedicels c. 5 mm long, puberulent, becoming ± recurved by anthesis. Calyx teeth c. 7 mm long, narrowly oblong or lanceolate, hairy or glabrate, reflexed. Corolla 2-3 cm long, campanulate-funnelform, violet-blue or bluish mauve; lobes = or slightly < tube, not spreading widely or reflexing. Stigmas 3-(4). Capsule 3-celled, 6-9 mm long, obovoid, dehiscing by basal slits.
N.: Wellington area; S.: in many parts as far south as Otago.
Europe, S.W. Asia 1940
Roadsides, old cemeteries, neglected gardens and similar habitats not far from habitation.
FL Sep-Feb.
Creeping bellflower has been naturalised for many years in N.Z., and in cultivation is now mostly found in old gardens. The similar and related C. trachelium L. was recorded by Allan (1940) but no specimens of wild plants have been seen. C. trachelium is distinguished from C. rapunculoides by the ovate cauline lvs, the erect calyx teeth, and the usually larger corolla.
