On Wed, 07 May 2003 10:45:24 +0100, "A.Malhotra"
wrote:

~
~
~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

True. If it were just pollen then it would be a lot simpler. But then
again pink and whitebells are invariably Spanish anyway, regardless of
any other characteristic!

In retrospect from this thread, looking at the weedy cluster I have,
which has cream pollen, thin leaves and is labelled English bluebell
from cultivated stock, the bells are far too pale for them to be 100%,
and quite a few of them stick upwards. I am tending to think it's an
almost-but-not-quite Englishbell :-/

There will be hybrids of straight hybrids and English which would tend
towards English in appearance but not quite have all of the
characteristics. I think that's why the questionnaire - it's not as
simple as a straight cross as Spanish have been here rather too long.

And why I reckon they are doing the survey in the first place!


--
jane

Don't part with your illusions. When they are gone,
you may still exist but you have ceased to live.
Mark Twain

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