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Campanula patula:

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Campanula patula L.                                           BACK                           Spreading Bellflower      __________________________________________________________________________________

Essex status: Probably casual only.

Spreading bellflower is a plant of warm sunny sites in open woodland or disturbed ground on sandy or clayey mineral, neutral to mildly acidic soils. It was formerly widespread as a native plant right across southern England and up into the Welsh borders. Today it is declining rapidly, and is virtually confined to the Welsh borders. Benson recorded a plant in a meadow near Halstead c.1800. Whilst this could have been a relic from a native site it is equally likely to have been a casual or escape from cultivation. Gibson (1862) says of the three old records `its claim to be naturalized appears very slight'. No post 1930 Essex records. 

TL(52)70

18

Near Danbury, garden escape, 1828. J C Harrison (Herbarium SRD).

 

18

Lt Baddow, in a hedge nr. Riffham Lodge, (c.1800). Edward Forster. (Gibson 1862).

 

 

 

TL(52)72+

19

Near Halstead, in a meadow. c. 1800. Thomas Benson (Gibson 1862).