Species - Bluebell (Hyacinthoides non-scripta)
Location - Various
Grid Ref - Various
Luckily for us, the UK hosts nearly half of the world’s Bluebell population, and they carpet many woodlands during April and May.
Bluebells are believed to have first appeared in the UK after the last ice age, they are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, and if you dig up and sell a wild bluebell you can be heavily fined. There are rare ‘albino’ bluebells which are white as they lack the blue pigment, and bees rely heavily on the flowers’ nectar in the spring but sometimes they ‘steal’ it by biting a hole in the bottom of the bell.
“How the merry bluebell rings,
To the mosses underneath...
Alfred Lord Tennyson, “Adeline””
