jane wrote:

On Tue, 06 May 2003 21:07:17 +0100, Hussein M.
wrote:

~On Tue, 06 May 2003 20:09:30 +0100 (BST), "Dave Liquorice"
wrote:
~
~On Tue, 06 May 2003 03:21:59 +0100, Hussein M. wrote:
~
~ I will have to phone my friend so he can drive me to the famous
~ local bluebell woods where I know they are non-scripta.
~
~Dig about on the net to find definative(*) ways of telling the
~difference, flower colour alone is not good enough. I have vague
~memories of the way the individual flower bells are arranged on the
~stem is the best method, one has them arranged all round the other
~tends to have them on one side. I *think* the English is all round but
~with the hybrids about gawd alone knows what happens. Combined with
~the pollen colour previously discussed and you can have a high
~confidence level on your identification.
~
~(*) If you can ever get a "definative" answer from the net. B-)

well this site (which I mentioned previously) is pretty much that.
http://www.plantlife.org.uk/bluebell/home.htm

In it is http://www.plantlife.org.uk/bluebell/plants.htm
which has a nice little interactive question and answer applet which
not only gives you information of the three types (English, Spanish
and hybrid) but allows you to feed in characteristics of whatever you
have in your plot/area and identify which you have.

The pollen's the biggest giveaway, which I now know the *right* way
round!!! Both hybrid and Spanish have blue/purple pollen, which I've
verified by going out in my back garden where I've got three huge
clumps of Hispanica, and it's definitely blue!


I looked at the Plantlife site yesterday and then while out of an evening
walk stopped by some clumps of bluebells growing in the lane by our house.
Many of the characters were clearly Spanish/hybrid (wide leaves, flower
shape and arrangement) but the pollen was definitely NOT blue, at least for
the pink one which also had quite a good scent. I notice that the plantlife
applet decides which you've got based on a concensus of at least 7
characters, not just one, so I think that any one character, including
pollen color, may be more variable in at least the hybrids, than you are
suggesting.
Anita