Bellflower

Bellflower
/bel"flow'euhr/, n.
a city in SW California, near Los Angeles. 53,441.

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Any of about 300 annual, perennial, and biennial herbaceous plants of the genus Campanula (family Campanulaceae) that bear bell-shaped, usually blue flowers.

They are native mainly to northern temperate regions in both hemispheres, Mediterranean areas, and tropical mountains. Distribution and habitat may be quite diverse. Species native to northern Eurasia and eastern North America but also grown in gardens are the bluebell (C. rotundifolia) and the tall bellflower (C. americana). The creeping bellflower (C. rapunculoides) is a notorious garden weed. Among the few food plants in the bellflower family, which includes a total of 40 genera and 700 species, are the rampion (C. rapunculus), eaten as a vegetable in parts of Europe, and some robust members
especially Canarina, Clermontia, and Centropogon
that produce edible berries.

Bellflower (Campanula)

W.H. Hodge

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plant
 any of about 300 annual, perennial, and biennial herbs that compose the genus Campanula (family Campanulaceae). Bellflowers bear bell-shaped, usually blue flowers. They are native mainly to northern temperate regions, Mediterranean areas, and tropical mountains. Many are cultivated as garden ornamentals.

      Tall bellflower (Campanula americana), native to moist woodlands of North America, has flowering spikes that may reach 2 m (6 feet) high and has saucer-shaped flowers with long, curved styles. Tussock bellflower, or Carpathian harebell (C. carpatica), with lavender to white, bowl-shaped, long-stalked flowers, several to the stem, has many forms. The plants, 15 to 25 cm (6 to 10 inches) tall, form clumps in eastern European meadows and woodlands. Fairy thimbles (C. cochleariifolia), named for its deep, nodding, blue to white bells, forms loosely open mats on alpine screes. Bethlehem stars (C. isophylla), a trailing Italian species often grown as a pot plant, bears sprays of star-shaped violet, blue, or white flowers. Canterbury bell (C. medium), a southern European biennial, has large pink, blue, or white spikes of cup-shaped flowers. Peach-leaved bellflower (C. persicifolia), found in Eurasian woodlands and meadows, produces slender-stemmed spikes, 30 to 90 cm tall, of long-stalked, outward-facing bells. Rampion (C. rapunculus), a Eurasian and North African biennial grown for its turniplike roots and leaves, which are eaten in salads for their biting flavour, produces ascending clusters of long-stalked lilac bells. It has narrow stem leaves and untoothed, broadly oval basal leaves that form a rosette around the stalk. Rover, or creeping, bellflower (C. rapunculoides), a European plant named for its spreading rhizomes, has become naturalized in North America. Throatwort, or bats-in-the- belfry (C. trachelium), a coarse, erect, hairy Eurasian plant naturalized in North America, bears clusters of lilac-coloured, funnel-shaped flowers. Other common European plants of the genus Campanula that often are cultivated in gardens are Adria bellflower (C. garganica, sometimes classified as a variety of C. elatines); clustered bellflower (C. glomerata); milky bellflower (C. lactiflora); great bellflower (C. latifolia); and C. zoysii. See also harebell.

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Universalium. 2010.

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Look at other dictionaries:

  • Bellflower — Bellflower, CA U.S. city in California Population (2000): 72878 Housing Units (2000): 24247 Land area (2000): 6.073422 sq. miles (15.730089 sq. km) Water area (2000): 0.074288 sq. miles (0.192406 sq. km) Total area (2000): 6.147710 sq. miles… …   StarDict's U.S. Gazetteer Places

  • Bellflower — ist der Name mehrerer Orte in den Vereinigten Staaten: Bellflower (Illinois) Bellflower (Kalifornien) Bellflower (Missouri) Bellflower Township (Illinois) Diese Seite ist eine Begriffsklärung zur Unterscheidung mehrerer mit …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Bellflower, CA — U.S. city in California Population (2000): 72878 Housing Units (2000): 24247 Land area (2000): 6.073422 sq. miles (15.730089 sq. km) Water area (2000): 0.074288 sq. miles (0.192406 sq. km) Total area (2000): 6.147710 sq. miles (15.922495 sq. km)… …   StarDict's U.S. Gazetteer Places

  • Bellflower, IL — U.S. village in Illinois Population (2000): 408 Housing Units (2000): 171 Land area (2000): 0.364913 sq. miles (0.945120 sq. km) Water area (2000): 0.000000 sq. miles (0.000000 sq. km) Total area (2000): 0.364913 sq. miles (0.945120 sq. km) FIPS… …   StarDict's U.S. Gazetteer Places

  • Bellflower, MO — U.S. city in Missouri Population (2000): 427 Housing Units (2000): 184 Land area (2000): 0.549118 sq. miles (1.422210 sq. km) Water area (2000): 0.000000 sq. miles (0.000000 sq. km) Total area (2000): 0.549118 sq. miles (1.422210 sq. km) FIPS… …   StarDict's U.S. Gazetteer Places

  • Bellflower — Bell flow er, n. [F. bellefleur, lit., beautiful flower.] A kind of apple. The yellow bellflower is a large, yellow winter apple. [Written also {bellefleur}.] [1913 Webster] …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Bellflower — [bel′flou΄ər] [so named (1909) as the site of an orchard of bellflower apples] city in SW Calif.: suburb of Los Angeles: pop. 73,000 …   English World dictionary

  • Bellflower — Bell flow er, n. (Bot.) A plant of the genus Campanula; so named from its bell shaped flowers. [1913 Webster] …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • bellflower — [bel′flou΄ər] adj. designating a large family (Campanulaceae, order Campanulales) of dicotyledonous flowering plants n. any of a genus (Campanula) of plants of this family, with showy, bell shaped flowers of white, pink, or blue, widely… …   English World dictionary

  • bellflower — /bel flow euhr/, n. 1. any of numerous plants of the genus Campanula, having usually bell shaped flowers and including many species cultivated as ornamentals. Cf. bellflower family. 2. any of various other plants having bell shaped flowers. [1570 …   Universalium

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