Spanish bluebell

The weather has broken and today there's mostly been cloud and a little light rain, with the occasional sunny interval. I took a break from woodland survey which gave me a chance to enter all my data onto spreadsheets.

Ben had an orthodontist's appointment for his braces to be tightened up, so once that was over we went into Peterborough and treated ourselves to lunch at Prezzo. He ordered a pizza, which was absolutely enormous, and I had a goat's cheese salad, which had about twice the calories of my normal lunch, but was very tasty!

By early evening I still hadn't taken my camera out - I think I took so many images yesterday that I was a bit burnt out!. I eventually found this Spanish bluebell Hyacinthoides hispanica lurking at the back of one of the borders and decided to give it a rather soft and romantic look.

This is the parent of the hybrid bluebell Hyacinthoides x massartiana, which is the variety most commonly grown in gardens. Spanish bluebell has a very open pale blue flower, with fairly straight petals and deep blue pollen. The hybrid has somewhat paler blue pollen, the flower is more bell shaped and the petals curl back - it is also very vigorous and spreads easily.

Our native English bluebell Hyacinthoides non-scripta has a narrow bell-shaped flower with recurving petals, is a sumptuous deep blue and has cream anthers. Unfortunately the pollen of the non-native species is carried far and wide by bees, and is infiltrating a growing number of native populations. The hybrids are fertile and form a complete spectrum between the two parents, and are often naturalised in the absence of both.