Rampion Bellflower, European Bellflower, Creeping Bellflower, Campanula rapunculoides L., Native Minnesota Wildflower plant, Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden, Rampion Bellflower

	Plants of the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden
	Common Name	Scientific Name	Plant Family	Garden Location	Prime Season
	European Bellflower	Campanula rapunculoides L.	Bellflower	Upland	Early Summer to Early Autumn
Other names and notes	(Rampion Bellflower, Creeping Bellflower). A plant of dryer places, roadsides, old gardens, it is up to 3 feet high on an erect stem. The blue bell-shaped flowers are slightly nodding, an inch long and tending to be on one side of the flower spike (panicle). They open from the bottom of the spike upward. Leaves are lance shaped, coarse with irregular teeth on long stalks, except the upper leaves which are usually stalkless. The plant grows from rhizomes and can become invasive. The American Bellflower (C. americana L.) blooms in the Woodland Garden. The genus name Campanula if derived from the latin meaning little bell. The species name is an old reference to the roots being like little turnips.


Below: An individual seed capsule.	Above: The long-stalked leaf with irregular teeth. Below: Seed capsules along the raceme.

Notes: This plant was listed on Martha Crone's 1951 inventory of plants in the Garden at that time. A European import now widely naturalized in Minnesota and the United States. It has been reported in a number of scattered counties in the State, principally in the northern 2/3rds of the state. In England, the plant was cultivated in English Kitchen Gardens and valued as a vegetable, although that use has now stopped and it is entirely decorative. Over there the name "Rampion" or "Ramps" is more the norm. Shakespeare's Falstaff references the plant which indicates it was well known in his time. It is part of one of the Grimm Brothers fairy tales - Rapunzel is named after it. Mrs. Grieve (Ref. 7) quotes Gerard: "Some affirme that the decoction of the roots are good for all inflammation of the mouth and almonds of the throte and other diseases happening in the mouth and rhrote, as the other Throte warts."

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References: Plant characteristics are generally from sources 15, 16, 30, 31, 33, W2 & W3. Distribution principally from W2 and also 31, 34 and W1. Planting history generally from 1, 4 & 4a. Other sources by specific reference. See Reference List for details.

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