Ontario Weeds: Creeping
bellflower
Table of Contents
- Name
- Other Names
- Family
- General Description
- Stems and Roots
- Flowers and Fruit
- Habitat
- Related Links
Name: Creeping bellflower, Campanula
rapunculoides L.,
Other Names: Campanule fausse raiponce,
Bellflower, Rover bellflower, campanule raiponce
Family: Harebell or Bellflower Family
(Campanulacae)
General Description: Perennial, reproducing
by seed and by the extremely persistent, widely spreading, fleshy,
whitish underground rhizomes and thickened storage tubers. Non-flowering
plants are distinguished by their many heart-shaped, irregularly
toothed leaves arising from at or below the ground surface, the
whitish, fleshy, underground rhizomes and tubers; flowering plants
have characteristic bell-shaped blue flowers with a 5-pointed rim,
and their seedpods develop between corolla and main stem.
Photos and Pictures
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A. Mass of leaves covering the ground surface in early summer.
B. Several leaves and shoots from underground roots. C.
Spike of flowers in late summer.
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Creeping bell flower. A. Stemless plant with cluster
of radical leaves from upturned rhizome.
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B. Basal leaves and short leafy stem from horizontal rhizome.
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C. Top of flowering stem.
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Stems & Roots: Stems, when present,
erect, up to 1 m (40 in.) high, smooth or finely hairy, usually
without branches; leaves mostly arising singly or in clusters directly
from rhizomes below the ground surface, these long-stalked and called
"radical" leaves (root leaves); the blades round to nearly
heart-shaped at the base, ovate, pointed towards the tip, irregularly
toothed, usually finely hairy; leaves on developing stems alternate
(1 per node), similar to radical leaves but stalks progressively
shorter and blades smaller, less heart-shaped and more regularly
toothed; uppermost leaves narrow and stalkless.
Flowers & Fruit: Flowers in elongating
racemes at the ends of the stems, blue, bell-shaped, 2 - 3 cm (4/5
- 1¼ in.) across, ending in 5 uniform points; flower stalks
frequently curved and giving the whole inflorescence an attractive
1-sided appearance; seedpods formed below the calyx and corolla,
somewhat spherical containing many very fine seeds. Flowers from
June until autumn.
Habitat: Creeping bellflower occurs
throughout Ontario in lawns, gardens, fence lines, roadsides, waste
places and occasionally in cultivated fields. It is sometimes planted
in ornamental gardens but spreads into adjacent areas by underground
rhizomes as well as by seed and is a very persistent weed.
Related Links
... on general Weed
topics
... on weed identification, order OMAFRA
Publication 505: Ontario Weeds
... on weed control, order OMAFRA
Publication 75: Guide To Weed Contro
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