Bluebell time

Photo: Jon Haylett

Mid May and it's Bluebell time from the Lizard to Cape Wrath where there are drifts of bluebells in woods and shady damp places. This image from Jon Haylett was too good not to use.

Its a plant with an identity crisis, with two common names; bluebell and wild hyacinth and since I was one of a tiny minority doing A level Botany in the 1950s the Latin name has changed twice. In my "Excursion Flora" it was Endymion non-scripta then it became Scilla non-scripta and latterly in 1991 Hyacinthoides non-scripta. This keeps Botanists in a job I suppose. Locally it's continued existence is threatened by Hughie's pigs and building development.