# Help identifying a European wildflower **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 9, 2012, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-identifying-a-european-wildflower/615343 "2012-03-09T23:24:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Imago](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/85e7bf/32.png) [@Imago](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Imago)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2012, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-identifying-a-european-wildflower/615343/1 "2012-03-09T23:24:51Z")
I’ve seen them at least twice, both times on TV. Most recently on a BBC documentary about Wilfred Owen, it showed a forest where he apparently was inspired to write his first poem at the age of 11. I can’t for the life of me remember what the place was called now. The other time(s) was/were on the fantasy series _Merlin_, also made by BBC, which I know to be filmed at least partly in France and I think is also filmed partly in Britain. Both times I’ve seen this flower it’s been growing in forests, in large enough numbers to colour the whole landscape the way that [lupins](http://www.neilhair.com/wp-content/uploads/russell-lupins_15946.jpg) colour ditches and fields here in Canada. They also seem to always be in the same shade of purple as those lupins in the picture. The shape of the flowers is reminiscent of lilacs or foxglove, and the plants are in stems that are covered from above a certain height with large numbers of the small flowers. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2012, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-identifying-a-european-wildflower/615343/2 "2012-03-09T23:45:46Z")
At what time of year were the scenes filmed? The [crocuses](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crocus) are out at this time of year. ---
**Author:** ![Imago](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/85e7bf/32.png) [@Imago](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Imago)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2012, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-identifying-a-european-wildflower/615343/3 "2012-03-09T23:55:30Z")
It must have been spring or summer in the documentary, but with _Merlin_ being filmed every season except winter I have no idea there. They were most definitely not crocuses. These flowers were much smaller and closer together on much taller stems, they formed a sort of sheath around the stem. If I hadn’t seen the lilac-like shape of the blossoms in a close-up I would have thought they were lupins. ---
**Author:** ![mutantmoose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a87d85/32.png) [@mutantmoose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mutantmoose)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2012, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-identifying-a-european-wildflower/615343/4 "2012-03-09T23:57:27Z")
Bluebells? [http://www.cotonmanor.co.uk/images/bluebells\_06.jpg](http://www.cotonmanor.co.uk/images/bluebells_06.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Imago](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/85e7bf/32.png) [@Imago](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Imago)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2012, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-identifying-a-european-wildflower/615343/5 "2012-03-10T00:06:39Z")
> [@mutantmoose](#): > > Bluebells? > > [http://www.cotonmanor.co.uk/images/bluebells\_06.jpg](http://www.cotonmanor.co.uk/images/bluebells_06.jpg) Heavens yes! In large groups they look just like the ones in your picture, and having just googled bluebells and seen the various blossom shapes and the purple ones they’re almost definitely some kind of bluebell. Thank you! We don’t have those here, but we have plenty of crocuses, though they don’t come up until April anymore with the local climate having changed so much. ---
**Author:** ![Springtime\_for\_Spacers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Springtime\_for\_Spacers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Springtime_for_Spacers)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2012, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-identifying-a-european-wildflower/615343/6 "2012-03-10T00:34:42Z")
> [@Imago](#): > > Heavens yes! In large groups they look just like the ones in your picture, and having just googled bluebells and seen the various blossom shapes and the purple ones they’re almost definitely some kind of bluebell. Thank you! > > We don’t have those here, but we have plenty of crocuses, though they don’t come up until April anymore with the local climate having changed so much. Bluebells are common in the British Isles – 70% of Europe’s bluebells are in Britain. The wild ones are always to be found in broad swathes in woodland, flowering before the leaves are (fully) out. I have seen fears that global warming will have a negative impact on them, by causing the trees to come in leaf earlier, depriving them of light in the growing period. ---
**Author:** ![Imago](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/85e7bf/32.png) [@Imago](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Imago)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2012, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-identifying-a-european-wildflower/615343/7 "2012-03-10T17:18:06Z")
> [@Springtime\_for\_Spacers](#): > > Bluebells are common in the British Isles – 70% of Europe’s bluebells are in Britain. The wild ones are always to be found in broad swathes in woodland, flowering before the leaves are (fully) out. I have seen fears that global warming will have a negative impact on them, by causing the trees to come in leaf earlier, depriving them of light in the growing period. Gods, I hope not. They`re so damn beautiful. ---
**Author:** ![Corcaigh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Corcaigh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corcaigh)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2012, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-identifying-a-european-wildflower/615343/8 "2012-03-10T21:04:45Z")
> [@Imago](#): > > Gods, I hope not. They`re so damn beautiful. A friend of mine posts a pic of the bluebell wood near her [in England] every year, it looks to be going strong this year! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2012, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-identifying-a-european-wildflower/615343/9 "2012-03-10T21:39:46Z")
First I’ve heard of the global warming threat. More serious threats to English bluebells are (a) people digging up the bulbs to sell and (b) hybridisation with the Spanish bluebell, which is a popular garden plant in the UK. There are still plenty of bluebell woods near me, though. [Here’s a pic](http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1946) of one a couple of miles away. ---
**Author:** ![Filbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/filbert/32/3433_2.png) [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2012, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-identifying-a-european-wildflower/615343/10 "2012-03-10T23:01:25Z")
Wild bluebells only come in that shade of blue though- they certainly aren’t purple. There’s only one native species. Yes, you can get garden morphs that are varied in colour, but they really don’t grow in large clumps in woodlands (they do hybridise as noted above, but the hybrids are pretty well the same shade of blue as Bristish wild type or, less commonly, white). I’ve never seen a lilac or purple one out of a garden, despite visiting a lot of bluebell woods, and I’ve seen very few white ones. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2012, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-identifying-a-european-wildflower/615343/11 "2012-03-10T23:48:20Z")
There’s something about bluebells that cannot be captured in photographs (although the image linked by **mutantmoose** is a good one). I’m sure it’s partly because the colour is troublesome for cameras - and in particular, the fact that the scene is composed of very rich blue and very vibrant green, together. But I think it’s also because of the way that humans don’t perceive the real world accurately. If you visit a bluebell wood at its peak, the impression can be a collection of paradoxes - it seems a solid carpet of colour, and yet, somehow diaphanous - it seems bright and lurid, yet somehow subtle. I’m not just being poetic here - I hope other UK Dopers will confirm this - there’s something about the in-person experience of this spectacle (in a repeatable perceptual sense) that transcends the tangible reality of what is really there.