Appearance
''Campanula trachelium'' is a perennial plant with one or more unbranched, often reddish, square-edged stems that are roughly hairy. The leaves grow alternately up the stems. The lower leaves are long-stalked and ovate with a heart-shaped base. The upper leaves have no stalks and are ovate or lanceolate, hairy with toothed margins. The inflorescence is a one sided spike with a few slightly nodding flowers. Each flower has five sepals which are fused, erect and hairy, and the five violet petals are fused into a bell that is hairy inside. There are five stamens and a pistil formed from three fused carpels. The fruit is a hairy, nodding capsule.
Naming
The alternate name ''throatwort'' is derived from an old belief that ''C. trachelium'' is a cure for sore throat, and the species name ''trachelium'' refers to its use as treatment of the throat in folk medicine.Other folknames include Our Lady's Bells because the color blue was identified with the Virgin Mary's scarf, veil, or shawl; Coventry Bells because ''C. trachelium'' was especially common in fields around Coventry; and "Bats-in-the-Belfry" or in the singular "Bat-in-the-Belfry", because the stamens inside the flower were like bats hanging in the bell of a church steeple.
Habitat
''Campanula trachelium'' likes humus-rich soil and is found in broad-leaved woodlands, coppices, hedgerows and the margins of forests.References:
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