Campanula medium L.
Canterbury bells
Erect, taprooted biennial with stems to c. 1 m tall. Basal or rosette lvs to c. 30 cm long, with petiole to c. 1/2 length of lamina; lamina oblanceolate or oblong, gradually attenuate to base, crenate, hairy above and below or nearly glabrous above; cauline lvs becoming smaller towards infl.; middle cauline lvs 8-20 × 1-3 cm, oblong or lanceolate-oblong, crenate, sessile and amplexicaul. Infl. a long, terminal, racemose panicle; peduncles long, foliose, bracteate, hispid; pedicels short, densely hispid; bracteoles foliose, to c. 2.5 cm long. Calyx 1.5-2.8 cm long, deeply lobed, hispid, mainly on margins; lobes lanceolate; appendages 7-11 mm long, broad-ovate, deeply cordate at base, reflexed. Corolla 4-5 × 2-3.5 cm (larger in cultivated plants), tubular-campanulate, ventricose below, usually violet or purplish; lobes 5-10 mm long, ± triangular, reflexed. Stigmas 5. Capsule c. 2 cm long, 5-celled, ± broadly obovoid, dehiscing at base.
N.: occasional in Wellington; S.: occasional in Christchurch, established locally at Roxburgh (C. Otago).
France, Italy 1968
Waste ground, roadside banks, apparently not persistent.
FL Dec-Feb.
Canterbury bells is cultivated in many parts of N.Z. but probably not as commonly as formerly. Fl. colour is difficult to determine in old specimens, but almost certainly the main colour was violet or purplish. In cultivation white and pink variants occur. Many of the cultivated plants belong to var. calycanthema Nicholls, cup and saucer Canterbury bells, with the calyx forming a corolla-like structure, i.e. the saucer. None of the wild collections belong to this selected form. The sp. can be easily distinguished from any others wild or semi-wild in N.Z. by its biennial habit and calyx appendages.
A perennial Eurasian sp., C. persicifolia L., is very commonly cultivated in N.Z. and long persists (sometimes increasing slightly) in and around abandoned gardens. Plants are glabrous; stems 40-70 cm tall; lvs linear-lanceolate; calyx lobes 1.3-1.7 cm long, linear-lanceolate; corolla c. 3 cm long, broad-campanulate, usually blue.
